The Masks We Wear
by Nightshade6265
Summary: Everyone wears masks to hide some part of themselves. Naturally, some masks are better at hiding things than others. The best masks, like Ramna Saotome's, hide in plain sight. Who is Ranma beneath his mask? We'll let him tell you.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everybody! Welcome to my second story! This fic is heavily inspired by Rapancheese's "Walking a Thin Line" and as such there will be similarities, such as characters being OOC, as well as other aspects. While I suggest reading that fic, my reason for writing this one is due to my one disappointment with it. Its ending, or lack thereof, really bothers me, and as such, I am writing this!**

**Also, this time, I will attempt to write in a multiple first person perspective.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, hell I don't own anything! Even the brain I'm using is on lease.**

Ranma

I often find myself sighing as I lay on the roof of the Tendo's home, thinking about all the things that have changed over the past months since Jusendo, thinking about all the things that haven't.

I've been growing stronger, far stronger. My ki reserves are becoming deeper and my ki itself has changed, though I'm not quite sure how to describe it.

So yeah, I've become more powerful, but it's not like it'll help me with any of my real problems.

None of the girls have changed. Shampoo, Ukyo, and Kodachi aren't any less obsessive. Hell, they're probably more obsessive now than ever if the explosives at the failed wedding were any indication.

Akane's temper hasn't improved, it hasn't worsened, but then again I'm not sure it can get much worse that malleting me into LEO (low earth orbit) for stupid insults. I just don't understand, it's obvious that she likes me, her protectiveness is proof of that, but she has the absolute worst way of showing it. I've hoped against hope that she would come to trust me, but I know that she won't. What do I have to do for her? Kill a God? Oh wait, I did.

The other inhabitants of Nerima aren't much better, in fact, most of them are as single faceted as I make myself out to be.

My idiot father sees nothing but the Art and his retirement, which he attempts to secure at my expense. Mr. Tendo is too busy wallowing in his grief to do anything at all, which would be sad, if he if he wasn't costing two of his children their lives. My mother has been around more often, always with her delusions of "manliness", as if I know what it means. Cologne is more desperate than ever to get me to the amazon village since the failed wedding, but considering that I beat Saffron, I'm not sure that she could make me through force alone, though I do have to be wary of potions and magic. I could go on, but what's the damn point?

The only one of them who has shown some improvement is Ryoga. He's a little more friendly now and he treats our fights more like sparring matches rather than trying to kill me, though he still yells "prepare to die" every time we fight.

Outside of Ryoga though, everyone is pretty much set in their ways, making them easy to read.

There are really only two people here that I suspect are more than meets the eye. Nabiki and Kasumi Tendo, the ice queen and the angel.

I often wonder about them, if they're like me anyways. Kasumi wears a perfect face of serenity, but I'm almost certain that there has to be more to her than that. On occasion, I see wistfulness in her eyes. Maybe she's hoping to be able to leave her family or make a life for herself. I honestly hope that she gets to.

Nabiki is the one I'm honestly not sure about. There may be more to her than the cold mercenary that everyone sees, or perhaps whatever else there was died along with her mother. I usually find myself believing the first possibility, as I notice that the bills are always paid despite the fact that her father refuses to get a job, though whether this is truly for the wellbeing of her family I'm not sure. Regardless, being her cash cow hasn't been at all fun.

Whether she knows it or not, I allow her to take pictures of my girl form, I wouldn't like to be a freeloader like my father is, after all.

I suppose that I hold out hope that if they really are hiding behind masks like I am, that they would be willing to be my friends, but I doubt I could get them to show me more without laying all my cards on the table, which I'm in no way prepared to do.

I suppose that if I had to choose one word to describe myself right now it would be tired.

Tired of all the responsibilities, the honor, the girls, the nutcases, and the act, especially the act.

Since I'd arrived at the Tendo dojo, no, before that. Since the early years of travelling with my father I had put on a mask, and a damn convincing one at that. He never saw anything but the Art, and everything else I learned at any temple, any shrine or town that we visited was worthless. I had to hide my intelligence from him, from everyone, and I'm tired of that.

It just gets old, being the martial arts jock, the one trick pony, the idiot who has no real friends because he can't risk being himself. It's painful really, to have to act stupid and have everyone treat me like I am.

The thing is, I can't end the charade. If I show my intelligence the game changes. I've acted incompetent and incapable in everything but the art, and it's been extremely helpful in terms of keeping things the same. If he knew how smart I was, my father would probably have me drugged and at the altar by tomorrow. If I show that I can make my own decisions I'd be forced to choose one of my fiancés. What then? If I don't choose Shampoo her punishment for not bringing me back to her village could be death, Ukyo's only course of action to keep her honor intact is to kill me if I don't marry her, and not choosing Akane or one of her sisters means my honor would be tarnished. I've always been taught that martial arts were to protect the weak, and I've done my best to carry that idea into my daily life. I can't hurt anyone for the sake of my happiness, but at the same time I don't want to be unhappy, so until I can find a way to solve this mess, I have to keep up appearances.

There's really only one flaw with my act, and I'm honestly surprised that nobody has picked up on it. So far as I can tell, people have just become so accustomed to the fake me, the stupid me, that they ignore anything that suggests that I might not be.

I've been defeated, brutalized, obsessed over, and made helpless, yet fake me still hasn't changed his views of the world, and nobody cares enough to notice. I've made myself out to be the embodiment of strength, the constant that keeps everything else around me in balance, but they should've realized that no one could experience all those things and remain the same, and they honestly believe that my views of the world haven't changed in the slightest.

I suppose that's something that really gets to me. The loneliness. It doesn't even make me angry anymore it just makes me…sad.

There's nobody who really cares for me, nobody I can confide in.

Akane hasn't trusted me since day one, and all my so-called friends and family want something from me. I'm just a means to an end for most of them, which is a really depressing thought.

I just wish there was somebody I could trust, but even if there is, unless I trust that person completely, I can't spill my secret.

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I can't change that.

'That's enough thinking for tonight, wouldn't want to end up a depressed wreck like Ryoga.' I think to myself, finally dismissing any remaining thoughts from my mind, allowing it to go blank.

As I lay here on the roof, it begins to rain, activating my curse.

Naturally, I begin considering the curse.

'What is it to me?' I asked myself once.

Looking back on it, that answer has really changed over time.

Two years ago I would have sworn vehemently that it was the bane of my existence, that I was a guy despite outward appearance. I suppose that's one of the few things that I had in common with the fake me, but he couldn't move past that, not without making me suffer under even more pressure from my parents. What it means to me now is a very different story. Now the curse is merely an inconvenience, and a miniscule one at that. I asked myself what it meant to me some time ago, and I found that the answer, while simple, had changed to something that I wasn't expecting. Here's what it means: Sometimes I'm a guy. Sometimes I'm a girl. Sometimes I have different parts, but I mentally remain the same, end of story.

Once I finished that line of thought I resumed my relaxation, allowing my mind to once again go blank.

This was it, the reason that the roof of the Tendo home is my favorite spot. It's peaceful. It's the only place in my life where nothing bothers me, where I can just take in the world around me without the usual distractions of my downright insane existence.

Of course, there are some nights where even my safe haven of peace can't protect me.

'This is one of those nights.' I thought to myself as I heard a quiet sobbing from below me.

Nabiki

Money, the only thing I seem to care about.

Everybody believes that that's all there is to me, and that's good. That means that I'm serving my purpose.

My mother's death hit my family really hard. My father stopped working, and there was nobody to take care of the house, so Kasumi and I took up those roles. Akane was too young, and my father hasn't told her that she should help either of us. I'm actually glad; I wouldn't want her to get into my line of work. It wears you down and eats away at you until you cant even recognize yourself.

Anyways, keeping the household afloat financially has become my eternal struggle, making me forfeit almost everything in my life.

Sometimes I wonder if I will have to be her forever, the Ice Queen that is.

I really hope not. I hate her. I hate her more than anything in the world but, the truth is, I need her.

Locking everything else away is the only way I can support my family, and with some of my business dealings, keeping my clients afraid is the only thing protecting me from them.

I'm not completely alone though, Kasumi I understand each other. She knows that I do what I have to, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Friends are out of the question. Some of my more… desperate clients might try to use them to get to me.

'I should give up on these thoughts.' I tell myself, knowing that I have work to do.

I settle down on my bed and begin counting money for the mortgage, school tuition, and other needs.

There's something bothering me though, like a fly buzzing around, making me uncomfortable.

It's a familiar feeling, and I know the cause of it.

I put the money down, and get off my bed.

My suspicions are confirmed, the picture of my mother is on my desk, watching me.

'Kasumi must have put it there.' I muse as I lay it face down so that it can't stare at me.

The damage is done though, as I find myself crying softly.

I miss her; I wouldn't want her to see me like this, doing terrible things to people for the sake of my family, to see me alone.

I lay on my bed crying a quietly as I can manage.

How long has it been? A half-hour? An hour?

Suddenly I hear a tapping on my window.

Cursing I manage to silence myself and to dry my tears.

The only one who would tap on my second story window is Ranma.

'I swear to god I'm going to double his debt!' I tell myself as I open the window to find a soaking wet female Ranma waiting outside.

"Hey Nabiki, are you okay?" He asks.

My anger melts like a snowball in hell.

'Am I okay?' I ask myself in my head, knowing the answer already.

Nobody has asked me that for a long time.

I look at the boy turned girl waiting outside in the rain, concern written all over his face. Only Ranma could worry about the Ice Queen.

Ranma

'Crying, there's another thing I have in common with the fake me. Neither of us can stand the sound of crying.' I muse as I listen for which room's occupant is crying.

As I look over the edge of the roof, I find that only Nabiki's light is on.

I stay still for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Finally I opt to tap on her window and check on her.

After a few moments all the noise stops and the window opens to reveal a very pissed-looking Nabiki Tendo.

"Hey Nabiki, are you okay?" I ask, slightly afraid that she might increase my debt. (Which I'm beginning to believe I might never finish paying off.)

Almost instantly, her anger sputters and dies.

She now has a confused look on her face, as if I've grown a second head.

Perhaps it's due to the fact that I'm soaked outside as a girl and have yet to ask if I can enter, regardless, I'm very interested.

Confusion is something I rarely see on the so-called Ice Queen's face.

"Why do you care Saotome?" She asks, composing herself after a few moments.

She's a few seconds too late though, and I've seen what I've been hoping for, humanity in the Ice Queen.

Quickly I put on my usual mask of ineptitude.

"I heard you crying and thought that maybe you hurt yourself." I say, not wanting to blow my cover by revealing my suspicions about her.

"You're the klutz here, Saotome." She says, closing the window and leaving me outside in the rain.

**There's the first chapter! You can already guess whom this story will be centered around. I will try to differentiate more between the real Ranma and Fake Ranma (yes that's what I'm calling him unless you can think of anything better) in future dialogue with Akane. There will be some Akane bashing in this story. My biggest worry here is that I'm writing Ranma and Nabiki too similarly, so tell how I 've done on that. Please review!**

Update June 3, 2014

I have changed a few things to lessen the Akane bashing, and changed the short blurb regarding Ryoga


	2. Chapter 2

**All right guys! Here's the second chapter! I really hope you like it. I'm really having a great time writing in first person POV, though it is a little difficult.**

**Some of you have commented that I've been relying too much on fanon, but I'm going to make this clear right now; I'm not writing to please you. I'm here to improve my own writing skills and decided to work with a series has some extremely under-developed characters. If you don't like me putting my own ideas in, then you don't have to read it. If you like it, great! Come along for the ride. Also, it should be noted that while I have read the manga, I am better versed in the anime. This means that our conceptions of Akane's temper may not match up, as she doesn't really improve in the Anime.**

**Disclaimer: If you think I own anything, then you've made some terrible life choices.**

Nabiki

It's been almost a week since my little breakdown, and I've had plenty of time to think about what happened, Ranma in particular.

When I first met him his curse was a little off-putting, but honestly it's just become a part of daily life, in fact, it would feel odd if it weren't present.

Despite what I appear to think of him as the Ice Queen, I actually admire him a little bit.

He cares for everybody, even when they don't deserve it, myself included. He's naïve, and I know it, but I can't help but like the guy. Don't misunderstand; he sure isn't a saint with all the insults he and my sister throw at each other, but considering how bad his father is, the fact that that's one of his worst qualities could be considered a miracle.

"PERVERT!" SMASH! Akane probably malleted the poor guy into the floor again. Sighing I begin taking money out of the stash I keep solely for damage repairs. Outside I hear the ring from Shampoo's bicycle moving further away.

'Geez, Akane's anger is such a pain. Why does she have to get so jealous of all his other fiancés? It's not like he's overly affectionate towards them or anything.' I think as I walk downstairs to assess the damages.

'The damage seems to be worse than usual.' I think as I see the crater in the middle of our family room, which is now filling with water due to what I assume to be a broken pipe. 'And he, err… she looks like she'll be alright.' I think as now inspect the boy-turned-girl in the center of the crater.

'I really hope Akane manages to get a hold of her temper.' I think to myself, not for the first time.

I sigh to myself as a walk away. I want to help Ranma up, I really do, but the Ice Queen wouldn't do that, and the show must go on.

Ranma

I could have had a relatively peaceful day, but no, I of course had to deal with Akane after school. On some days, if I'm lucky, I'll be too busy fighting Ryoga, Mousse or some other challenger to deal with her. Those are the days that I find myself counting my blessings.

She's got to be the hardest person for me to interact with while I'm the fake Ranma.

When talking to her I have to be almost everything that I hate about the fake me. I have to be condescending, rude, prideful, and even a little bit sexist, while trying to point out that I haven't done anything to deserve a malleting. The fact that she jumps to conclusions doesn't help me either.

I've often mused about how to describe my interactions with Akane, and have come to think of it as a balancing act, an impossible one.

I don't hate Akane, she lost her mother at a young age, her father treats her like a child and she was engaged without her consent, but the truth is, I don't love her, not anymore.

When I first arrived at the dojo I was already tired of keeping up my act, and when I met Akane I thought that just maybe I'd have a real friend whom I could confide in. But then she found out that I was a guy, and treated me worse than dirt. Granted, I said some small insult regarding her figure, but that hardly warrants being smashed over the head with a table.

Anyways, the concept of having a real friend for the first time in years gave me hope, and Akane crushed it almost immediately. Over time our relationship has improved some and I have come to think of her as a friend, but she doesn't really trust me

I honestly don't know if I'll forgive her. I don't hate her for it, but I still can't help but feel betrayed.

Today though, she was especially pissed. She made me lunch today and I hid, after all, getting stomach cramps isn't high on my to-do list.

By some small miracle she didn't find me during lunch, and didn't attack me in class since she isn't willing to risk getting ki drained by Ms. Hinako. On the way home from school however, she was pissed. I could tell that she would boil over soon; her glare and muttering of the words pervert and floozies made that pretty apparent. Whenever she's looking for a reason to mallet me I try to get back to the Tendo compound as soon as possible with the hope that she'll get distracted with homework or trying to help Kasumi cook. I know that she often destroys parts of the house when she mallets me, and I do feel a little bad, but frankly, I'm happy to risk a little damage to the house to avoid a mallet strike.

Today though, Akane was quick to insult me, calling me a pervert and accusing me of spending time with my so called "floozies" during lunch. My counter to these arguments is that I'm nervous enough around girls to be considered a prude, and that both Shampoo and Ukyo were also looking for me during lunch.

Unfortunately, the fake me isn't particularly skilled in the use of logic, and sure as hell wouldn't just ignore an insult and walk away, which left me with only one option: retaliate.

She spent the whole lunch period looking for me, and when she found Shampoo on the way to the Tendo compound after school she immediately blamed me and told me her usual line about never wanting to see me again.

Truth be told, some part of me enjoys insulting Akane, and I'd be lying to say that I didn't resent her even a little for the hitting me.

The fact is that I enjoy getting back at her, and that's one of the two reasons why I've continued to let her hit me.

It's pretty obvious that I far surpass Akane in terms of skill, but if I ever chose to stop her, I'm not sure if I could stop myself from getting back at her for all those beatings, and even if I did, she could easily injure somebody near her if she wasn't paying attention, and I'm not willing to risk allowing either of those to happen.

It's ironic really, that the fake me might be a better person in the respect that he would never consider beating her to a bloody pulp, but I digress.

I of course retaliated, calling her an uncute tomboy, which then resulted in the familiar sight of a large mallet descending upon me and smashing me into the floor.

I take a little bit of time to lie in the crater, as it might just be the only real peace I have today. I sigh as the crater begins filling with water activating the curse. I'm vaguely aware of people walking by and looking at the crater: Mr. Tendo, my father, and Nabiki. She stops for a few moments, probably assessing the cost of the damages. Suddenly I feel guilty that I hadn't just taken the malleting outside on the way back from school. As she leaves, I let out a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding.

Picking myself up from a malleting has become easier over time. I think it has toughened me up, similarly to the bakusai tenketsu training's effect on Ryoga.

True, it's certainly been a slower process, but the end result is the same.

Pushing some broken pieces of wood off of my chest, I begin sitting up.

"Ranma! Go and apologize to your fiancé this instant!" I hear my father yell.

I want so badly to ignore him, to just walk away, but of course, I have to keep up the act.  
"Go away pops, you're botherin' me." I say, before walking out to the dojo.

"Get back here you ingrate of a son, and apologize to Akane!" He yells again, this time taking a step towards me and throwing me outside.

I manage to avoid the koi pond (it may help that I'm already a girl right now) by landing on one of the rocks around it. My father of course jumps into the air above me, and I follow suit, ready for the specialty of my style: aerial combat.

The art is nothing less than my greatest freedom. Fighting is the one activity that involves other people and allows me to be me. It's just so freeing and natural.

He launches a simple punch, an obvious attack, but I know him, and I know how dirty a fighter he can be. Immediately upon dodging the punch I am forced to block, as he lets loose a hail of blows that I know are intended to distract me. And there it is, in the corner of my eye, a kick that could easily send me plummeting down into the pond below us.

"Nice try old man!" I say as I block the roundhouse kick before responding in kind with various blows of my own at amaguriken speeds.

He manages to block most of the strikes but a few manage to clip his sides, throwing off his balance enough for me to send him plummeting down into the koi pond with an axe kick.

"Stupid panda." I mutter as I walk back into the house.

As good as that felt, I know that I can't keep going like this forever. I need someone who I can talk to.

It's not like I have that many options as to who it could be.

'Nabiki or Kasumi?' I ask myself as I walk inside, 'Nabiki would be easier to talk for most of the day, since Kasumi is always at home,

But how should I go about it?' This question stumps me for a while.

'Nabiki's ice queen persona would never allow the two of us to be seen as friends in public, so I have to explain to her that I know that there's more to her than just that.

Of course, I can't just start acting intelligently all of a sudden; I have to make her committed to the friendship. If she sees that I'm smart she might think that I'm just trying to get back at her for all the times she's manipulated me. No, this will work much better under my mask of innocence and honesty. I can explain to her later that there's more to me than she thinks. First though, I need an excuse to talk to her alone, and that means that I'll need either money or a deal with her to pay off my debt.' I tell myself as I douse myself in some warm water that Kasumi has been kind enough to heat for me.

'Let's see here, what could she need that I am capable of doing? The old Ranma certainly isn't capable of working in her intelligence network and she keeps all the people she extorts so scared of her that they don't dare attack her, so working as a bodyguard won't work, though she might see my presence and reputation alone as enough to keep me around for insurance.' I think to myself as I walk to her room.

Regardless, it's time to speak to my future boss.

**That's all folks! Finally done with this chapter, though I need to work on writing fight scenes a little more. Review!**

Update January 16, 2016

Minor additions to help a few sections run more smoothly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here we are! I had some trouble with this chapter and re-wrote it a few times. I'm not completely satisfied with it, but I hope that you like it nonetheless.**

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing**

Ranma

'Alright here goes.' I think as I begin knocking on Nabiki's door. After a moment of silence I hear her footsteps as she moves towards the door. She opens it stares at me coldly.

"What do you want Saotome?" She asks in a voice that clearly indicates that she has things that she would rather be doing.

"Hey Nabiki, I kinda have a business proposition for you" I say nervously.

"Using big words today are we?" she asks, a snarky grin forming on her face.

"I, uh…" I say intelligently as I mentally kick myself for not reverting to my simplistic speech habits.

"So what is it that you're proposing Saotome?" She asks now slightly curious.

"Well, I was thinking that I should start working off my debt, and I was wondering if you could find a job for me." I say, hoping that she would have something for me to do.

She shoots me a quizzical look, and I can practically see the gears turning in her head.

Nabiki

Ranma asking for help, now this is certainly odd. I should probably give him a chance to pay off his debt. But what could I use him for? I don't have any dealings with people who are likely to hurt me, so I really don't need a bodyguard at the moment.

Let's see what else is Ranma capable of? He's fast, and his preferred way of traveling is by hopping from roof to roof. He'd make a good courier. He's hard to follow and while it will be easy to see where he's bringing the messages, our reputations should certainly be enough to dissuade anybody from investigating too much.

"I suppose I do have something for you to do." I say, "You can have a job as a courier, all you need to do is to bring information and packages to me from my sources."

He smiles somewhat.

"I'll consider how much I'll deduct from your debt after your first assignment. That will depend of course on how well you do your job. Understand?" I ask.

He nods before thanking me profusely and leaving my room.

"I wonder what happened to make him want to pay off his debt." I murmur to myself once he's gone.

Ranma

Step one is finished, so now onto step two. How do I befriend Nabiki? I could just act nice to her, but I get the feeling that she will think that pretty suspicious. I could just flat out tell her that I was curious because I saw her crying, and I could probably pass it off as just a guess that there's more to her than just the Ice Queen, but I'm not quite sure how she'll react. There are two possibilities that I can think of. Option A, she tells me that I'm right and attempts to be my friend, or option B, she denies that there is more to her than the Ice Queen and fires me immediately.

I think that just flat out telling her might be the better option, after all the fake me is very direct and simple, and this is certainly the most simplistic approach I could take, but I still don

The third matter at hand might prove to be more difficult than actually befriending Nabiki. How on earth do I stay on course as a courier when I have multiple fiancés and challengers attacking me all the time? I can probably deal with Ukyo by telling her that it is important that I wipe away my debt, but Shampoo and the others are unlikely to listen to that reason. I find myself pulled away from my thoughts as I bump into Akane.

"Hey Akane." I say, hoping that she won't as too many questions.

"Ranma, what were you doing in my sister's room?" She asks, her voice indicating confusion rather than its usual ire.

"I just wanted to talk to her about paying off my debt." I say, hoping to diffuse the situation by talking about something that Akane (and every other person in the area) had struggled with as well.

"Well how are you paying it off? You never have any money." She says.

"She actually let me have a job so that I can start paying my debt off." I say, hoping that my fiancées and rivals don't hear about this.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She yells, "You're working for Nabiki?"

"Yeah, something wrong with that?" I ask, my tone challenging.

"Yeah, she sells pictures of us to Kuno!" She says, clearly not catching on the steel in my voice.

I walk off in a huff, not wanting to explode at Akane.

Nabiki

I sigh as I hear the conversation right outside my door. I hate hearing what people think of me. It lets me know that my act is successful, but I still can't stand to hear it.

'Let's see here, what job can I give Ranma?' I ask myself. Suddenly it finally dawns on me that I've made an extremely stupid business decision. I've hired the epicenter of chaos in a town full of superhuman martial artists to deliver various important packages.

After a few minutes of panicking I finally compose myself. Everything will be all right. If things go badly I can just fire him after his test assignment. If everything goes without a hitch then I'll keep him. So long as I make the first package something unimportant I can't lose. I release a breath I didn't know I had been holding.

I pause for a moment, just to stop and look at myself. This is it. This is what I've become: someone who is so focused on money that they would fire someone whom I unfairly condemned to debt if they damaged my profits even marginally.

'Stop it.' I think to myself, 'this is for your family.'

'Does that justify it though?' I think.

I sweep the thought aside as I return to the decision of what Ranma's first assignment should entail.

Suddenly a perfect idea strikes me.

'Oh, this is going to work out just fine.' I think to myself as I relax on my bed and resume counting money.

Something has been bothering me since the hearing the conversation outside of my room though. Ranma doesn't think badly of me, and the Ice Queen has never attracted anything but hatred, which begs the question: 'Does he know?'

Ranma

As I jump onto the roof a thought enters my head. 'What if this whole friendship thing doesn't work out? What then?'

It's a thought that I haven't even considered, and though I hate to admit it, I'm scared of what might happen if this goes wrong. I know that I can't keep going like I have. I'll go nuts, and I know it. There've been so many times when I've wanted nothing more than to just break down, to give up and let Ryoga, Mousse, or whoever just kill me.

At the end of the day though, I know I can't do that. It's not that I'm afraid of dying, but I can't let go of the idea that one day I might get out of this mess. That I might get away from my rivals and fiancés.

It's got to happen eventually. Statistically speaking, I should've already been rid of Shampoo by now. I mean honestly, with all the strong martial artists coming to the area I would've thought that some guy would have beaten her by now.

'One day I'll get out of this mess.' I think to myself, 'I don't lose often, and never when it matters.'

**All right, short chapter I know, but I couldn't think of anything to add and I felt like it was a nice place to end it. I tried to write the whole story beforehand, but I've decided just to post it and to have slow updates. I hope you guys don't mind. As always, review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's the next chapter! So sorry for how late this is; I've gotten very distracted as of late as I've decided to play the original Final Fantasy and I just started League of Legends out of curiosity.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Ranma do you really think I'd be writing fanfiction?**

**Ranma**

"Here it is, the day of my first assignment." I tell myself as I sit up on my futon.

Thankfully I've begun to wake up earlier, it gives me more time to think and as a bonus, I don't get rude awakenings from pops every morning.

Silently I get dressed and creep out of the room and down the stairs. To my surprise, Kasumi is already cooking breakfast.

As I walk into the kitchen she turns around to greet me.

"Good morning Ranma, Nabiki left a package for you." She says, gesturing towards a small brown bag sitting on the counter.

Attached to the bag is a note which reads: Ranma, take this to the roof of Furinkan High at 12:00 today. DO NOT LOOK INSIDE THE BAG!

'Damn, I don't like having to go to school on a Saturday' I think to myself before looking at the clock.

Okay, I've got about six hours and ten minutes before I need to be at Furinkan.

Deciding on a course of action I walk outside and hop on to the roof before taking a meditative pose.

I know that to most it seems like I neglect the spiritual aspect of martial arts, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I understand that the spiritual is just as important, if not more so than the physical, and I treat it as such.

Early in my training trip, I met a monk at a shrine. I walked in on him during his morning meditation, and he explained to me that meditation helps one contextualize the control they have gained through martial arts and apply it to all aspects of life. He went on to say that mediation also helps one to connect to their ki, which, when utilized correctly, can allow them to perform feats that most people would consider superhuman.

Akane's morning brick breaking is a perfect example of ki usage, albeit of a low level. Akane can easily shatter bricks with her bare hands despite not receiving any extensive training to toughen her body. A normal person with her training and experience would shatter all the bones in their hand before managing to break the brick, but Akane's naturally high ki levels allow her to shatter the bricks with ease. This is the result of attuning yourself with your ki, and it can be done through emotion or many hours of meditation and practice. Personally, I prefer the latter.

As I begin slowing my breath I allow the world around me to disappear.

The twittering of birds.

Gone.

The rustle of leaves in the wind.

Gone.

The feeling of the roof beneath me.

Gone

The cold morning air that surrounds me.

Gone.

My heartbeat.

Gone.

I find myself encompassed in the void in my mind. Reaching deeper within myself, I focus on my ki, feeling what can only be described as potential, power that has yet to be manifested.

After a few minutes of attuning myself to it, I relax, simply feeling the ebb and flow of my ki, which has naturally attuned itself to that my breathing. As I lose myself within my mind I lose sense of time.

After an unknown period of time I decide to take action. Opening my eyes, I hold out a hand and summon a ball of ki.

Focusing more on the ball I begin to flatten it, attempting to create a small barrier.

It's an idea that I'd been experimenting with for some time. While taking a (very reluctant) trip via air Akane I began considering where her mallet comes from. It's certainly different from Mousse's hidden weapons technique, and it disappears immediately after she's done with it, which implies that it's made of ki. She isn't conscious that she's using it; at least I don't think she is. From what I've noticed, she seems to be working more with instinct than deliberate thought, but that doesn't mean that I can't focus my ki intentionally.

Flattening the mass of ki in my had a little more it glows a little brighter and the edges begin losing form. Soon it falls apart completely, degrading into what looks like a small fire. I force myself into the soul of ice to extinguish it. Upon the ki disappearing I notice that there is now a decent sized burn on the dead center of my palm.

Cursing as I jump off the roof I return inside.

My ki has been increasingly unstable since my battle with Saffron, though it's been happening even more in the past few weeks.

My best guess is that his fire magic left some unintentional side effects on my ki, which has made it harder for me to control.

"Kasumi, where's the first aid kit?" I ask as I walk into the dining room.

"Oh dear, let me get it for you." She responds, hurrying out of the kitchen.

Sitting down at the table I hear someone's footsteps as they come down the stairs.

To my surprise, it's Nabiki, who is usually among the last of the household's members to wake up.

Shuffling by me without so much as a grunt she heads directly for the kitchen, presumably for coffee.

Almost a minute late she comes out of the kitchen and sits down in her usual spot at the table, coffee mug in hand.

A few minutes and several sips of coffee later she finally addresses me.

"What are you staring at Saotome?" She asks, clearly still grumpy.

I blink, not noticing that I've been staring.

"N- noth-" I begin stammer, only to be interrupted by Kasumi, who has returned with the first aid kit.

"Ranma, let me wrap you hand." She says, unwrapping a roll of gauze.

"Thanks Kasumi." I say giving her a warm smile.

Nabiki is studying my hand now.

"I hope you're not expecting any days off." She says, a smug grin on her face.

I can only chuckle, as it's just what I've come to expect from Nabiki.

"You think a little burn is going to stop me?" I ask, now wearing my own trademark grin.

Letting loose a snort of amusement she returns her attention to her coffee.

"Boy!" I hear my father yell as he barrels down the stairs before leaping at me.

I manage to jump outside before he reaches me and engage him in the air, signaling the end of my peaceful morning.

**Nabiki**

Now that Ranma is outside I turn to Kasumi.

"You prepared the package right?" I ask her.

"Of course." She says, nodding to me. "Tell me though, why are you giving Ranma a job?"

"He asked." I say.

Kasumi only raises an eyebrow in response.

"Fine, I felt bad about charging him all the time." I say, tiring of the look she's giving me.

"So he's managed to get past the Ice Queen?" She asks, smiling.

"I suppose he has, but you have to admit, it's kind of hard not to like the guy after all the times he's managed Akane and the dojo. He's just a good person." I muse.

"Don't tell me you're falling for him." She says mockingly.

I can't help but snort in amusement as I picture myself joining the fiancée brigade.

"Yeah right." I say. "I'm a little to focused on other activities for romance at the moment."

"You haven't given a reason you wouldn't like him." She says, her tone even more mocking than before.

"Oh shut up!" I say as I give her a playful shove, before we both break into fits of laughter.

**Ranma**

'Better head to Furinkan' I think as I look at the clock, which now reads 11:32.

I grab the package and head out the door, only to be stopped by the familiar ramblings of an idiot swordsman.

"Kuno, don't you have something better to do?" I ask.

"Silence knave, I shall smite thee!" He yelled, his bokken raised in the Jōdan-no-kamae position.

He steps forward, swinging down towards my neck only for me to sidestep and let loose a brutal kick that sends him flying into the distance.

Just then from the direction I kicked Kuno sprinted a figure that I recognized as Mousse.

Damn, kicking Kuno over there must've caught his attention.

"Ranma, today I will defeat you and win Shampoo's affection!" Mousse yelled,

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but today Duck-boy is actually wearing his glasses.

"Of course you would choose to wear your glasses on the day that I don't have time to deal with you!" I yell while dodging the numerous weapons that pulls from his sleeves.

In an attempt to blind me he even throws out a smoke bomb.

Unfortunately for Mousse, I've become quite adept at sensing the ki of others, which allows me to dodge the assortment of knives he has begun throwing from odd angles. I barely manage to swing Nabiki's package away from the knives.

As the smoke clears I rush towards Mousse and let loose a barrage of amaguriken blows with my free hand.

Mousse expertly dodges by twisting to the side before leaping back and releasing a hail of iron balls that are attached to chains.

Donning my usual cocky grin I rush forward weaving through the chains before firing a low powered Moko Takabisha at point blank range.

Upon firing the blast I notice that something is wrong. The heat from the blast is immeasurably more intense. The blast flares out on the surface, making look more like a blast of fire than a standard ki blast.

As the energy makes contact with Mousse he flies back several feet before crumpling on the ground.

I rush towards him and flip him onto his back, inspecting his stomach where the energy made contact. Mousse's robes have a huge hole in them, and his skin looks as if it has been burned pretty badly. Despite this, I breathe a sigh of relief.

'We've dealt with worse injuries before.' I think to myself, 'but it's a good thing I didn't put any more energy into that attack, the damage might've been a lot worse.'

Picking up the myopic assassin I begin making my way towards the Neko Hanten to drop Mousse off.

The thought is still fresh in my mind, "What is wrong with my ki?"

**Nabiki**

'It's 12:24!' I think, furious about the tardiness of one pigtailed martial artist.

Pacing impatiently I begin calming myself by taking a few deep breaths.

Let it never be said that I don't appreciate the Ice Queen's ability to keep calm in every situation.

Just then I see a figure approaching the school on foot. As he gets closer he jumps onto the nearest fence before leaping a few stories higher onto the roof.

Looking at my phone again I notice that it is now 12:27.

Ranma walks towards me, looking very nervous.

For a moment I just glare daggers at him, waiting to hear what he has to say.

He remains silent for a few moments, looking at me apologetically.

"Well?" I ask, a hint of ice making it's way into my voice.

"Please don't fire me." He says, meekly. This only serves to bring a cruel smile to my face.

It's not the answer I was expecting, I'll give him that, but it doesn't change the fact that he messed up.

He holds out the package for me to take. I snatch it out of his hands before inspecting it. The bag has a few minor rips and tears. Taking out the box inside I look at it, checking of any damage. Finding none, I turn back to Ranma.

"Explain." I command, more patient now that I've found that the package is unharmed.

**Ranma**

"Explain." She commanded, seemingly calmer that before.

Taking a deep breath before speaking I begin my story.

"When I left the house with the package I was attacked by Kuno and Mousse." I say simply, really not wanting to talk about what had transpired.

"So am I fired?" I ask again.

She looks pensive for a moment, as if she is weighing her options.

"No," She says, "but only because you managed to keep the package safe."

Smiling inwardly I turn to walk away before being stopped.

"Saotome, where do you think you're going?" She asks.

"Huh?" I say intelligently.

"I didn't say you could leave." She says, as she motions for me to sit down.

I obey and she follows suit, before taking opening the package and revealing…her lunch.

I barely manage to keep from facefaulting at this.

"You were late and I can't have that if you're working for me, so until you can be on time with deliveries you're going to bring me my lunch every day." She says.

This time I really do facefault.

**That's it everybody! It took way too many tries to write this chapter. I think I've redone it something like five or six times already. I hope you enjoy it though.**

**I would really appreciate it if you were to leave a review. It would be awesome.**

Update January 16, 2016

Minor grammatical corrections


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's the new chapter. Life got the better of me these past few weeks, I've been without Internet for a few weeks while working in a place called Chavin de Huantar in Peru, and now I'm inly Lima, visiting my family, which has really eaten up my time. Anyways, here it is, I really hope you enjoy it.**

**Remember I own absolutely nothing and that I'm making no profit off of this.**

**Ranma**

I've been bringing Nabiki her lunch for four days and I've managed to be on time with the delivery for the last two. Still, Nabiki won't allow me to begin the actual work until I can consistently be on time for a whole week, which is pretty good considering I haven't managed to start up a real conversation with her, much less establish a friendship.

Today though I've decided to just confront her about both our situations, I've already planned out how to keep her from spreading my secret around, and I know that she isn't stupid enough to risk anything.

Before I deliver her lunch though, I have a detour to make. I'm hoping that Tofu might have some knowledge to help me with my ki problem.

"Hey Doc, you here?" I call as I push open the door to Tofu's clinic, only to be greeted by a man I've never met before.

"Hello, I'm doctor Yanagawa. I don't believe we've met." He says, a warm smile on his face.

"Oh, hello. I'm Ranma Saotome. Where's Doctor Tofu?" I ask, now thoroughly confused by this man's presence.

"He moved to Nakano a few months ago," The man states, "though I don't know the reason."

"Oh, thanks. I'll have to track him down one of these days." I say, more to myself than to the doctor.

"I take it you're one of his friends. Let me give you the address of his new clinic." The man says, "He left some very interesting medical books and scrolls that he may want back. Would you mind delivering them to him?"

"I'd be happy to."

He hands me the supplies, one of which I recognize as the scroll of the Tokyo Grandpa Point.

Thanking the man, I walk outside, ready to make my delivery to Nabiki, only to be stopped by a familiar voice.

"Ranma, prepare to die!" I hear Ryoga yell as he lunges towards me, finger extended for the bakusai tenketsu.

Jumping back, I only barely manage to avoid the ensuing spray of asphalt.

Momentarily I find myself wondering how this new doctor will react to the crater in front of this clinic before turning back towards my own immediate problem, which has begun climbing out from his crater and making his way towards me once more.

"Hey Ryoga!" I say as cordially as I can manage.

While it is true that Ryoga has been better as of late, he still has a nasty habit of attacking me whenever he thinks I've done something against Akane, which, from their points of view, is fairly often.

'How did I piss off Akane this time?' I wonder, before deciding that it's not worth thinking about.

'Pig boy probably just saw her unhappy and assumed that I had something to do with it.'

I'm shaken from my thoughts as I instinctively dodge the first in a volley of Ryoga's bandanas.

Taking care to protect my package from the numerous projectiles I expertly weave around them, all the while moving towards Ryoga.

With a roar he stops throwing bandanas and swings at me with his left arm, grazing my cheek as I dodge to the right.

I expertly deliver a snap-kick to his now exposed back, sending him skidding for a few feet. Unfortunately for me, it doesn't seem like the blow had any effect on him. I rush towards him, using the amaguriken with my free hand to deliver as many blows as I can before he can completely recover. Unfortunately for me, this seems only to enrage him as he lets out a yell and punches me hard in the stomach. Coughing, I grab his arm as I release a vicious kick to the side of his head, knocking him over.

Slowly, but surely he begins getting up again, a sickly green aura now surrounding him.

'Damn,' I think to myself, 'pig-boy seems more durable every time I fight him.'

"Shi Shi…" Ryoga begins, his head hanging low.

'Oh crap!'

"Hokodan!"

I barely manage to move out to the way of the green lance of ki tearing through the air.

'Alright, there's now way in hell that I can fight Ryoga while protecting the package and without using ki,' I tell myself, 'so there's only one option I have at the moment: Run!'

I run as fast as I can, making as many turns around as many corners as I can . While I might have Ryoga beat in speed, I'd still be relatively easy to follow if I try to roof-hop away. My best hope is to get him lost.

Slowly but surely I hear his voice fade into the distance before disappearing completely as I run away.

'Alright, that's one problem dealt with, or postponed at the very least,' I tell myself, 'But I still need to track down Doctor Tofu to get some answers about my ki; I just hope he can provide them.'

As I touch down on Furinkan's roof I am greeted by the sight of Nabiki waiting for me. She is tapping her wrist to indicate that I'm late, though the mocking look on her face tells me that I'm not too far behind schedule.

"How late am I?" I ask cautiously as I hand over her lunch.

"Only about two minutes." She says as she opens her bento and takes her chopsticks from the bag.

"Does this mean that I have to start over again?" I ask, my head hanging.

"I'll let it slide." She says, "But only because you can afford to be a little late if you have to shake someone off of your trail."

I only nod at this before pulling out my own bento and sitting down.

Nabiki raises an eyebrow at this, but follows suit.

'This is it, time to reveal my mask, and let her know that I know of hers.' I think to myself as I steel my nerves.

"Nabiki?" I ask hesitantly.

"Yes?" She asks.

"I want to talk to you about a few things."

**Nabiki**

"That'll cost you." I say.

"You can decide whether or not I pay once I finish." He says.

"Fine."

"Tell me, outside of fighting ability, what about me has changed since I first came to your home."

"Nothing." I say after a few moments of thought.

"Exactly, doesn't that seem more than a little odd to you?" he asks.

Truth is I do think it odd, but then again few things regarding Ranma aren't. I'd chalked it up to his father's bad parenting and stupid ideas being too deeply drilled into his head.

Without waiting for me to respond he continues.

"I've been beaten, obsessed over, extorted, engaged, and cursed. Do you think that anybody could live through all of those things without their views of the world being altered even a little? "

I can only shake my head as he finished his rant.

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask, "You realize that I'm likely to sell this information."

"You won't." He says, "Because you would lose more than you gain."

"What could I possibly lose?"

"I would stop being your cash cow. Don't think even for a second that I couldn't put a stop to you taking pictures of me, as well as your other dealings.

I pale slightly at the thought of this. Ranma is my main source of income at this point, and while I could probably manage to keep the dojo afloat without him, I know for sure that I wouldn't be able to handle the damage costs.

"Still, why tell me?"

"Because I can't handle it anymore. I don't have any real friends, I can't show who I am to anybody else. I'm lonely."

"But why me?" I ask again.

"Because if anybody understands my situation it's you." He says.

My heart skips a beat.

'He knows!' I think to myself as I panic.

A myriad of thoughts rush through my mind.

'How did he find out? When did he find out? Why is he so calm about this?'

My face is now one of complete shock as the cold calculating Ice Queen melts instantly.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." I sputter, the last vestibules of my calm collected demeanor leaving me in the process.

Ranma just beams at me, which would be comforting if he hadn't just revealed that he was aware of my biggest secret.

"How did you know? And for how long?" I ask, having regained some of my former composure.

He looks pensive for a moment before speaking.

"I had my suspicions for a little less than a year, and I'll admit that the lengths you went to acting like the Ice Queen you almost convinced me that there was nothing more to you than a coldhearted mercenary on several occasions, I mean, dressing me up in a bunny costume and whoring me off was downright evil, but I understand why you did it." He says, chuckling little, "What really convinced me that you weren't heartless was when I found you crying a few weeks back."

"How could you understand why I extort people?" I ask, more to test his knowledge of my situation rather than to satisfy my own curiosity.

"Well, this is mostly speculation on my part, but it occurred to me a while ago that the Tendo compound is quite large between the house and the dojo, and that the bills couldn't easily be paid by one person. Nobody has a job but your father, and even then that job of his on the city council isn't enough to cover the costs for the entirety of the compound, especially with all the damage caused by my rivals and fiancées. So I figured that somebody else had to be helping, and since you're the only one with a steady stream of money, it just makes sense," He says.

"This is surprisingly well thought out for you." I comment, reflecting on the truth in his words.

"You wear your mask and I wear mine." He says, a wry smile on his face.

"So you know my secret and you told me yours. But I have to ask again, why?"

"Because I'm tired of being lonely, and I'm pretty sure that you are too." He says, his expression serious.

"Getting a job from me, biding your time? You did this all because you wanted to be my friend?" I ask, dumbfounded.

At this he just nods, a huge smile on his face.

"Saotome, can't anything about you be normal?" I ask, exasperated.

"I still haven't heard your answer. Friends?" He says.

'What have I got to lose?' I ask myself, either way he knows my secret and even if I do get some particularly difficult clients in the near future, they probably won't be able to do anything to hurt Ranma.

"Yes," I say, "on one condition."

His smile falters for a moment.

"Nobody can know. The Ice Queen being friends with a martial arts jock might bring up a few too many questions for the both of us."

"Alright," He says, "but isn't there anybody else who knows who you really are?"

"I'll tell Kasumi," I offer, "She's the only other person who knows I'm not just the Ice Queen.

"Great."

"You do realize that you're on permanent lunch duty now, right?" I ask mockingly, which causes us to succumb to a fit of laughter.

**I REALLY hope you liked this chapter, and honestly I'm not entirely sure how I did with it.**

**Also, there is a reference to another Ranma fic in here. If you find it, tell me in a review!**

**It will also be my birthday on the 12th, and I've found that reviews are excellent presents.**

Update January 16, 2016

Minor grammatical updates


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, real life reared up and bit me in the leg, but enough of my pathetic excuses, I've gotten used to my school schedule for the most part so I will be returning to my writing. Can I promise regular updates? No, not really, but I can sure as hell try to make them **

**Disclaimer: I'm sure you all know how this song and dance goes, but I OWN NOTHING**

Nabiki

"Here I am on my bed thinking over, not for the first time, how much has changed in so little time.

"Two weeks ago I would've laughed if somebody told me that Ranma would be the best friend I'd ever had, but hey, considering what Nerima attracts, this is pretty normal.

"Ranma's willingness to sit down and listen to me vent has done wonders for my stress levels, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like my life is actually bearable.

"This isn't to say that everything is perfect, but he's helped ease my burden, and his attitude recently tells me that I've done the same for him. He hasn't just listened to me though; he's begun helping with my business. Neither of us likes it, but I can get far better photos of him than the ones I was selling before now that I can just ask him to pose for me. Even though these better quality pictures can sell for more, another source of income is in order. Unfortunately, we've been a little too focused on just enjoying each other's company rather than brainstorming any plans.

Just then I hear a knock on my door. For a moment I wonder who it could be, before deciding that I should really open the door regardless of who is knocking.

I open the door to see a soaked redhead in my doorway.

"Do you have a towel? There's only one in the furo, and I'm pretty sure that whoever is taking a soak will need it once they're done." She says.

"Do I even want to know?" I deadpan as I usher her inside and begin looking for a towel.

"Akane tripped and spilled a glass of water on me." She answers lamely while looking at the small puddle now forming around her feet.

"I toss the toss the towel at her while she is distracted. Unsurprisingly, she catches it without looking and begins drying the sopping mess that is her hair.

"So is there anything you wanted to talk about?" I ask.

"Well I did want to visit Doc Tofu in Nakano next weekend and I was wondering if you wanted to come along."

"Why Ranma, it sounds like you're asking me on a date." I say teasingly as I lean towards her ear.

"What?! B-but I-No!" She sputters, immediately turning beet red and shaking her head.

"Oh, am I not attractive enough?" I say in mock hurt, causing the poor redhead even more distress.

"No! I mean yes! I mean-"

"Jeez you're so easy to mess with!" I say, giving her a playful shove as she tries to regain composure.

She responds by pouting before turning her back to me.

"So why are you inviting me?" I finally ask, curious about her reasoning.

She turns back towards me before responding.

"Well, I was hoping that we could hang out in Nanako since we can't be seen together in Nerima without hell breaking loose."

"This still sounds like a date to me." I say, only in half-jest.

For a moment she looks as if she is about to deny it again before regaining her composure and surprising me.

"It is if you want it to be." She says, a smirk on her face.

It's my turn to blush as she begins laughing hysterically.

"Gotcha!" She says grinning from ear to ear.

For a moment I actually find the idea appealing before the rational part of my mind steps in.

'What am I thinking?' I ask myself, 'We can't afford to be seen together in public, and I'm considering a relationship? Besides, She has a bunch of fiancées that he shows no interest in, why would he like me?'

All these thoughts and more rush through my head before I realize that Ranma is waving her hand in front of my eyes.

"Nabiki? You in there?" She queries, now having finished laughing at my expense.

"Uh, yeah." I say intelligently, my face still red.

"So do you want to come or not?" She asks.

"S-sure." I say after thinking it over for a second.

"Great! I was planning to leave Friday and spend the night there before coming back late on Saturday. Does that sound good to you?" She asks.

"That sounds fine I guess, but how are we going to explain going on a trip at the same time? Also, where will we stay?" I inquire. It would be suspicious after all, if our families and friends found out that we happened to be going to the same place at the same time. This might seem that this is something they wouldn't really question, especially when considering who we make ourselves out to be, but if there's anything I've learned from being the Ice Queen its that I'd rather be safe than sorry.

"I was thinking that I would use the good old training trip excuse, and that you could say that you might have a potential client in Nanako. Since you charge them for information so often they'll probably leave it at that. As for where we will stay, well I'm sure we can find a place in the area." She says, as if it's no big deal.

"Huh, I'm still not completely used to having such bright ideas." I chuckle.

"And I'm not entirely used to you being so nice to me, we'll get there." She says matter-of-factly as she shoots me a reassuring smile before walking out of the room.

I can't help but smile after she leaves.

'How on earth did such a great friend just fall into my lap?'

Ranma

I can't help but ask myself what I did to deserve such a good friend.

'Well, considering all the stuff I've been through it might be some sort of karmic payback.' I muse smiling to myself.

As I walk down the hall I realize that Kasumi has finished her soak in the furo.

"Hello Ranma, I just finished taking a bath, the furo is free if you want to change back." She says in her typical friendly manner.

"My relationship with Kasumi has also taken an unforeseen turn. While we've always been on good terms we've both kept to ourselves for the most part, but now that we have Nabiki as a link we're approaching something resembling a friendship.

"Nah, I really don't mind being a girl for a while. I'll just get splashed again sooner or later." I say.

She just nods and begins heading down to the kitchen.

"Say Kasumi, I was wondering if I could talk to you about Nabiki." I say.

"Sure thing, so long as you follow me down to the kitchen and help me out with dinner." She says.

I nod and follow her downstairs.

As we enter the kitchen Kasumi begins taking out all the necessary ingredients and cooking utensils for katsudon.

"Ranma, could you take care of the rice while I do the rest?" She asks.

"Sure." I say as I grab the cooker and begin pouring the rice and water in.

"So what's up with Nabiki? She usually tells me everything." She sys and she tosses the pork into the skillet.

"We were thinking of hanging out next weekend in Nanako and I wanted to know what she likes." I say.

"Oh my! Are you two together?" She asks, though I can't tell if she is really shocked or just teasing me.

"No, we're just going out as friends after I take care of an errand." I say.

For a moment I can swear I see a flash of disappointment on her face.

"I see. So what did you have in mind?" She asks.

"I was thinking of going to a movie or getting some ice cream." I say.

"She likes comedy movies, see if you can find one in the area. As far as ice cream goes, she habitually charges Kuno for his pictures in ice cream." She says.

"You can't be serious." I deadpan.

"I'm completely serious." She says, amused by my confusion.

Resisting the temptation to facepalm I turn my attention to setting the table.

"So what is this errand?" Kasumi asks as I walk back into the kitchen.

For a moment I consider telling her that I'm going to visit Doctor Tofu but I decide that if he wanted her to know he would've told the rest of us.

"Just going to visit a friend." I say.

She raises an eyebrow at this but leaves drops the subject, much to my relief.

I would hate to have to explain that I'm going to visit a close family friend who disappeared without telling anybody and who had the hots for her to boot.

Just then I hear the sound of someone coming down the stairs.

If it's Pops he'll whine about me being in the kitchen, and if it's Akane I'll be interrogated about what I'm doing in the kitchen with her sister.

Fortunately, I'm prepared for this.

I reach into my pocket and pull out gauze and some medical tape that I snagged from Dr. Yanagawa's office.

"Kasumi, do me a favor and put these on me will ya?"

For a moment she seems confused, but catches on and begins applying them as if I have a cut on my cheek just as Akane walks through the door.

"Got into another fight?" She asks, a touch of concern in her voice.

This is what bothers me about Akane. This is why I can't hate her, because despite all the abuse I know that somehow, deep down, that she likes me, even if she doesn't know how to express it. But it's also the reason that a relationship between us could never work in a million years. The only way to convince her of something is to have proof that I haven't done anything wrong when it should never be about that. I should never need any evidence, my actions should be enough, my words should be enough.

"Yeah, Mousse got a lucky shot in. He grazed me with a knife." I lie with a smile, donning all the bravado I can muster.

She snorts and leaves the room, clearly not amused by my cocky demeanor.

I opt to leave the kitchen too, as being caught in here again might give away that I'm not here to get patched up.

"Thanks Kasumi." I say.

"No problem." She says, a genuine smile on her face rather than the fake one that she usually plasters on.

I head out of the kitchen and hop onto the roof.

For a moment I consider experimenting with my ki some more, but decide that it I shouldn't risk getting another burn before I know what I'm trying to accomplish.

Instead I opt to just lay back, stare at the sky, and wonder where life might lead me.

For once, the possibilities don't actually seem so bad.

**Alright that's chapter 6! Sorry again about how late this was, but I've had some new obligations. For those of you who are wondering about what the reference I noted in the last chapter was, Doctor Yanagawa is a reference to the Ranma fic "To tell a hawk from a handsaw" by N. Reynolds. Go read it! It is one of the more unique Ranma fics I've read to date.**

Update January 16, 2016

Minor grammatical corrections and a one minor line of dialogue to make things run a little smoother.


	7. Chapter 7

**Ummm…Hey guys. I should probably explain myself for why I haven't updated recently. I know it's not as late as my other updates, but I still feel bad. This was going to be posted before Christmas, but my computer died, effectively taking all of my writing with it…So here I am again, re-writing a chapter that I only had to proof read…Still owning nothing.**

Ranma

Today is the day that we leave for Nakano. Naturally we couldn't just go out together so I left a few hours earlier than Nabiki under the story that I am going on a training trip for a few days. Nabiki doesn't really need a cover for why she is leaving; she'll just charge anyone who asks, killing their curiosity on the spot.

Regardless, I've been waiting for her at the train station for a while now.

Suddenly I hear an all too familiar laugh. I look around just in time to notice Kodachi before she notices me. I take a cautious breath and slip into the Umi-Sen Ken to mask my presence until she leaves.

I decided to unseal both the Umi and Yama-Sen Kens a while ago. Despite the destruction that they could cause, fighting Saffron made me realize that I needed all the power I could get just in case I ever have someone else of that caliber again.

After hearing Kodachi's maniacal laughter fading off into the distance I end the Umi-Sen Ken and resume looking for Nabiki. After a few minutes I finally see her, and give her a small wave from a safe distance. She gives me a nod of acknowledgement.

It's the only contact we have until we reach Nakano.

Nabiki

Upon getting off of the train I looked around to see Ranma roof-hopping towards our agreed meeting place.

I begin to walk in the same direction. Fortunately the train ride was only about half an hour long so I wasn't particularly stiff.

After a few minutes I find Ranma waiting for me, now in his female form.

I raise my eyebrow at this but decide that it is a common enough occurrence that it really doesn't need to be addressed.

"Aren't you gonna ask?" She questions.

"It happens pretty often. Is it really that important?"

"I guess not." She says, shrugging.

"So do you know where to go from here to reach Tofu's clinic?" I ask.

"A passing lady told me that it was a down a few blocks that way." She says, motioning to the street on her right.

"Then let's pay a visit to the good doctor."

Ranma nods and we begin walking in the direction of the clinic.

Upon arriving we open the doors and are greeted by an empty waiting room.

"Anybody here?" Ranma calls out rather loudly.

"Come on in to the back room!" Yells the familiar voice of Tofu.

As we walk into the back room we see Tofu looking at some papers with his back turned to us.

"Sorry, but my receptionist is taking a sick day. She seems to have the flu." He says, his back still turned.

I look at Ranma who smiles at me, as we wait for Tofu to turn around and realize whom he is talking to.

"So, what can I do-" He begins as he turns around only for his eyes to widen and his jaw to go slack for a moment before he regains his composure.

"Ranma, Nabiki! It's great to see you!"

"Likewise Doc." Ranma says, flashing the man a smile as she walks to the nearest sink to change back to her male form.

"So what brings you to here?" He asks as he motions for us to sit down on some nearby chairs.

"Before we explain why we're here we would like to explain something else to you first." I say, slowly preparing to drop my usual mask.

He waits in silence for me to continue.

"Ranma and I are probably very different from how you perceive us. We've been hiding our true selves for a long time." I say, hesitating now that I have to explain myself. "Ranma is way more intelligent than he lets on, he just puts on an act to delay having to choose a fiancée, and I'm way more than just the Ice Queen, but I use her to make money for the dojo."

"I hope you're not mad." Ranma interjects, his tone one of hopefulness.

Tofu diverts his eyes from us, clearly mulling over what we're told him.

Ranma shoots me a nervous glance as we wait for him to say something.

After a long uncomfortable silence Tofu finally speaks.

"I'm not mad." He says. "And I can understand why you've hidden yourselves, but I'm a little disappointed that you felt the need to hide from me; there is such a thing as doctor patient confidentiality."

"We're telling you now though. We can continue being friends if you like." Ranma says.

"…I would like that, Ranma." He says before turning to me. "My relationship with you on the other hand has been purely professional. Can I expect the same friendship from you?"

For a moment I'm a little surprised that he is asking this of me, but I realize quickly that, whether intentional or not, he's given me another opportunity to step away from being the Ice Queen, an opportunity made very safe by his distance from Nerima.

"I'm a little slow to trust, but I'd be happy to be friends." I say, a small smile on my face.

"Alright." He says, a small smile on his face. "So why are you here?"

"We came because Ranma's ki has been acting up lately. We know you're not an expert on the subject but we were hoping that you could lend us any scrolls you might have on the subject."

"I'm going to need some time to take some scrolls out of the basement that I never unpacked. After leaving Nerima I didn't expect to be using some of my more…esoteric scrolls."

"Alright Doc. Oh, by the way, here are some scrolls that you forgot in Nerima. Nabiki and I will head out into town and hang out for a while." Ranma says handing him the scrolls.

"You can call my phone when you find the scrolls." I say as grab a nearby pad of paper and begin writing my number with a pen that I keep on me.

"Alright. I'll call you when I find it." He says as we walk out the doors.

Ranma

As we walk the streets of Nakano I find myself surprised about how calm it is.

With the usual chaos of Nerima I only fin this peace at night on the roof of the Dojo.

It is a great change of pace for me; I just hope that my usual bad luck doesn't ruin it.

"Nabiki, any place in particular you want to go?" I ask, hoping I didn't just jinx us with my previous thought.

"I've always wanted to visit Nakano Broadway." She says, "I haven't bought any new manga for a while."

"Who needs manga when you've got my life to look at?" I ask jokingly.

"I've seen enough chaos in your life for a lifetime." She says, a wry smile on her face, "I'm just going to find a nice calm slice-of-life manga."

"You've added chaos to my life! I seem to remember you posing as my fiancée. Then you invited my fiancées to the wedding. And-" I begin saying in mock seriousness as I count off on my fingers only to get cut off by a playful shove.

"You know I have to maintain my reputation." She says laughing.

"Hey, in the short time I've known you I've learned that you do like messing with people." I say, a smile brimming on my face.

"Well, if you think about your life objectively with all the chaos of a curse and multiple fiancées, it is a little funny if only for how ridiculous it is." She admits sheepishly.

I can't help but nod as I've considered what my life must look like to normal people more than a few times.

"Come on." She says grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me in the direction of Broadway.

Nabiki picked up a few new books to add to her collection and we stopped at an ice cream parlor called Daily Choco. Nabiki got a small cone with strawberry ice cream, and I got the parlor's specialty-an ice cream cone with eight different flavors stacked on top.

"Is there a reason you turned into a girl before we got our ice cream?" She asks.

"My dad always taught me that stuff like this was girly." I say.

I know that it's a stupid excuse seeing as my father has the social skills of a hammer, but it is the truth.

"Ranma, look around and tell me what you see." She says.

"People." I say after looking around, slightly confused by the question.

"Okay, now what gender are these people." She asks, as if I'm a child.

"There are both guys and girls here." I say, finally noticing what she's getting at.

"Well there you go!" She says. "Nobody but your parents are going to hound you about being a man among men, and you know that your dad is an idiot so why don't you decide what is honorable?"

For a moment I'm caught off guard. Its' so rare that somebody says that something is my choice.

"You're right, I'll talk to Dr. Tofu about it later." I say, a small smile on my face.

"Don't forget, you can ask me too." Nabiki says.

"Yeah, but I kind of need a male role model." I say as I give her a playful shove, carful not to knock over our ice cream cones.

Just then Nabiki's phone rings.

"Hello Tofu." She says as she answers her phone. "Alright we'll be back soon."

"Did he find the scroll yet?" I ask after taking another lick of my ice cream.

"Yeah." Nabiki says, "We should get back over there."

I just nod before we begin walking out of the store.

Nabiki

As we arrived at the clinic we found Tofu waiting for us in the back room, reading an old looking scroll that I assumed to be the one Ranma requested.

"Hello!" We greet.

"Good, you're back." Tofu says, adjusting his glasses.

Ranma takes the scroll and rolls it up.

"I'll read through it later." She says.

"What if you need help understanding it?" Tofu asks, his tone one of concern.

"Do you have an email address?" Ranma asks.

Tofu nodded

"Then I can send you an email from the school's computer lab if I need any help making sense of the scroll." Ranma said.

"Very well." Tofu said in a calm tone, though he had raised an eyebrow when Ranma mentioned that she knew how to use a computer.

After a brief, somewhat awkward pause I speak up.

"Tofu, do you know any cheap hotels in the area where we could stay?

"Unfortunately I can't say that I know of any reasonably priced places nearby, but you could stay here at the clinic for the night. I have some extra beds for patients in one of the back rooms."

"Are you sure Doc? We wouldn't want to impose." Ranma says.

"It's no problem at all!" Tofu assures us. "I'll be staying here late tonight anyway to organize some patient files and the company would be nice."

"Sounds good to me." I say.

Ranma and I spend the following hours telling Tofu about how we found out about each other's secrets and how we'd been hanging out since then.

He seemed happy for us, asking us how everybody else was doing, though he did beat around the bush when asking about Kasumi.

After a while Ranma leaves me alone with Tofu so that she could get some warm water and then prepare for bed.

"Tofu," I say cautiously, "There's something I'm curious about."

"What is it?" He asks, though I can see in his eyes that he already knows.

"Why did you leave Nerima? And why didn't you tell any of us?" I ask, throwing my caution to wind as my curiosity gets the better of me.

Tofu hangs his head for a moment before lifting it looking me in the eyes and answering.

"I left to get away from your sister." He says, "After one of her visits I wasn't thinking clearly and one of my newer patients came in."

I pale at the though of this. I've only seen the aftermath of Kasumi's visits, and after seeing what he's done to Ranma I shudder to think of how a normal person might've suffered.

"The lawsuit was quick and, all things considered, not too bad."

"So you left to get away from Kasumi so you wouldn't hurt anybody else." I state, my voice only a whisper.

He looks at the ground once more.

I can tell from his silence that I've hit the nail on the head.

After what feels like forever he finally speaks up.

"Please…just don't tell her where I am." He says, "I don't want her coming to visit."

"I won't." I promise, though I feel bad for the poor man. I know how much he liked Kasumi.

"You should turn in for the night." He says, wistfulness still present in his eyes.

I nod and head to the bathroom to get ready for bed.

For a moment I find myself just staring at the mirror, mulling over what Tofu said.

Upon coming back to my senses I finish getting ready and exit the bathroom.

As I walk to the room that I'll be sleeping in I can hear Tofu and Ranma's voices faintly from the room where Tofu was doing his paperwork.

I can't make out what they're saying, but I decide to leave it be due to my exhaustion.

I enter the back room, lay down on one of the beds and close my eyes. Some time later Ranma enters the room and does the same.

Ranma

I wake up the next morning to find that Nabiki is already up and about. I find her outside with Tofu, each with a cup of coffee.

She acknowledges me with a grunt before turning her attention back to her coffee.

"And here I thought that being grumpy in the mornings was part of your Ice Queen act." I tease, which elicits a glare from her.

I can't help but chuckle a little bit at her.

"We should get going or we'll miss our train." I remind her, before turning to Tofu. "Thank you for having us. It was great seeing you again."

"It was great to see you again too." He says, "but make sure to visit again soon."

"We will." I say simply before turning back to Nabiki who has now finished her coffee.

As we walk out of the clinic I call back to Tofu. "Just don't forget so send me what I asked for."

"Don't worry, I'll get it to you the minute I find another one." He called back.

Nabiki raised an eyebrow questioningly but didn't say a word, clearly too grumpy to really care at the moment.

On our way to the train station she gradually became less so.

As we get to the bustling train station I stop and try to move in front of Nabiki.

"What is it?" She asks in a whisper.

"Run!" I whisper to her.

It's too late though. Before she can move we've already been seen.

I am greeted by the sinister grin of an elderly, diminutive man in a ninja suit.

"What do we have here?" Asks Happosai.

**Finally I'm done with this. It took me forever. I really hate rewriting things so the fact that I had to re-do this really killed my will to write it, but even worse, I haven't even had a chance to breathe for over two weeks now. I've just had so much going on. Once again, I'm sorry for how late this is. **

**Please Review!**

Update January 16, 2016

Minor grammar fixes.


	8. Chapter 8

**It's done! Finally this chapter is done! I hit a serious case of writers block on this, and while I have many ideas for the story, the majority of them are for later parts, so I can't guarantee quick chapters for the time being, though this is also due to time constraints in my daily life. I thank those of you who have continued supporting my story and I hope you continue to do so.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Ranma, the anime would have included the saffron arc so that I could've seen a proper ending in color and with motion.**

Ranma

I can't help but curse under my breath as I stare down Happosai and curse my terrible luck. His grin is as infuriating as it is sinister, and it seems to be more so the longer I stare him down. I would love to wipe that look off his face, but even after beating Saffron I'm not certain that I even have a chance at beating Happosai. Sure, I could do some damage to him, but he has centuries of experience on his side, and for him to be the grand master of Anything Goes, I'm sure he was every bit the prodigy I am.

Fortunately, he has his weaknesses, and while I don't have any panties to bribe him with right now, I can still appeal to his pride and his honor.

"I don't want to fight you. Not here anyways," I say cautiously, though it is obvious that my fury is barely contained.

His eyes widen almost unnoticeably. I'm almost sure he expected me to attack him immediately, or at least address why I'm with Nabiki in a different ward.

"Why is that m'boy?" he asks, his grin unwavering.

"I've killed a god and you're most certainly more powerful than me. Fighting here, in a crowded place, would put people at risk and cause excessive damage. You may be an old letch, but I know you're above that."

His grin changes almost instantly. It now looks more like a genuine smile, one of pride and admiration than one of cruelty.

"Very well. Meet me on the roof of the Tendo compound at twelve tonight. And if I might add, you are speaking far more eloquently, Ranma," Happosai says, his previous malicious grin returning as he turns around and begins walking away.

I freeze as I realize that I haven't put on my mask.

"Wait!" Nabiki commands, making full use of her Ice Queen persona. "Are you going to tell everyone back home what you just saw?"

"I'll decide that later tonight after talking with Ranma," he calls back to us as he continues walking away.

I stare dumbfounded at Happosai as he walks away.

"What can we do now?" I ask after regaining my composure.

"You need to check how much he suspects, and we need to appease him enough that he won't tell anyone what he saw," she says, calmly, though I can tell that she is a little worried.

"I'll take care of it," I promise.

"If he wants you to do something degrading, then go ahead and let him tell everyone," Nabiki says.

"But what abou-," I begin only to be cut off.

"No," she says, completely resolute. "Our reputations are not worth letting Happosai hurt you. Keeping up your act and getting smashed by Akane is one thing, but we both know that Happosai is capable of worse."

I hang my head and clench my fists as I remember of the ultimate weakness moxibustion technique.

"Fine," I concede.

We stand there in silence until the train arrives.

Nabiki

Ranma and I once again sit apart from each other on the train, so as not to look like we are together when we arrive in Nerima. For a moment I find myself wondering why we are bothering with this.

We've already been found out, after all. I shake myself out of it and hope that Ranma will be able to convince Happosai not to reveal our secret, or that for once, by some miracle, that Happosai has no intention of causing trouble.

I almost dismiss the idea right out, but I remember that I've seen stranger things since Ranma came to Nerima, albeit not much stranger.

As we arrive in Nerima I see Ranma take off towards the compound, presumably to lie on the roof and read the scroll that Tofu provided gave him.

I opt to take my time going home so that I can mull over what I can tell Kasumi.

I fully intend to keep my promise to Tofu and hide his location from my sister, but I struggle with whether or not to worry her by discussing Happosai. I will share the rest of yesterday's events with her of course. What's point of having a friend if you can't brag about them a little?

Upon reaching the compound I brace myself for my father to confront me wailing, while Akane asks what I was doing with Ranma. I'm all but sure that Happosai let the cat out of the bag. The little troll has never seemed trustworthy before after all.

To my surprise, the family room is empty. Mr. Saotome and my father must be out, and if Akane isn't fuming in here or the dojo that must mean that Happosai hasn't said anything …yet. Quietly I peek into the kitchen to check for Kasumi, who is preparing lunch.

"Hello Nabiki. How was your trip?" she asks me, without turning around or even taking her attention away from the food she's preparing. Sometimes I wonder how she maintains such good awareness while in the house.

"It was fine," I say, "Ranma and I spent the day exploring the ward and then we crashed at a friend's house."

"A friend?" Kasumi asks, tilting her head to the side ever so slightly.

"Well, he's really more Ranma's friend than mine, though he did extend his friendship to me," I explain, hoping that she won't press the issue.

I haven't even lied to her as I'd never really considered Tofu to be my friend before the trip. Sure, he was my family's doctor, but that relationship was always professional, at least to me. Kasumi and Akane would probably see things a little differently.

"How nice of him," Kasumi says, smiling. "I trust Ranma was a gentleman."

"That pervert? Yeah right!" I say in my best Akane imitation. It's meant to come out jokingly or at the very least teasingly, but the moment the words leave my mouth I can tell that they sound rather malicious.

I'm not entirely sure what prompts me to act this way. It's out of character for me. I know that the situation between them isn't a laughing matter, and that I shouldn't be mean to my sister, but I can't help but feel some resentment for Akane after seeing how she treats Ranma. Granted, he doesn't show her who he really is and teases her maybe a little more than he should, but her displays of violence make my blood boil.

Kasumi gives me a look that is clearly meant as a warning, but I know that Akane's tantrums bother her as much as they irk me.

"So he was completely respectful then?" she asks, though it sounds more like a statement.

"Of course," I say.

"I can't help but notice that you've become protective of him," Kasumi notes. "Whenever someone is unfair to him you seem pretty upset, especially when Akane is involved."

I shrug, but I know what she's getting at. Since I've gotten to know Ranma better I've found him to be one of the most noble people I've met. Hell, even from behind his mask he made it abundantly clear that honor was important him. But since he's shown me who he is and allowed me to have a respite from being the Ice Queen I can't help feeling like I should be doing something when he is treated unfairly.

Kasumi doesn't say anything, making it clear that she's waiting for an answer more substantial than a shrug.

"He's my friend and I can't help but feel like I should do something about it when he's treated badly," I murmur dejectedly.

Kasumi just gives me a knowing smile.

"I think that you've done more than enough to help him recently," she remarks, "You've given him an escape from his mask. I'm sure you've noticed that he's been happier since you two became friends."

I can't help but feel that, despite the impact I've had, I should be doing more. Nevertheless, I nod at Kasumi's statement, though on the inside I just feel as if I've found yet another reason to resent the Ice Queen.

Ranma

I immediately jump on the roof as I arrive at the compound. I can't help but feel grateful that Happosai hasn't told anybody that he saw me with Nabiki yet. Even if he isn't entirely sure what's going on with us, I'm sure everybody would draw their own conclusions. I still don't know how I'm going to explain it to him though, or even what he really wants from me. If it's anything lewd though, I'm going to pound him into next week.

I decide to open up the scroll that Tofu lent me. It's rather long, explaining even the philosophy and the basics of how to use ki. The information in the scroll doesn't even seem related to any medicine or healing. Regardless, I continue reading until I find something that describes ki flow in the world.

_All living things produce Ki, and it pervades the entirety of out world. There is a divide though, between inner and outer ki. Every living thing creates ki, and keeps enough of it to survive within itself until death: This is inner ki. However, most life creates more ki than is necessary, and as such it bleeds off into the world around them: This is outer ki. It is theorized that this bleeding off of ki into the natural world is what allows soil and air to sustain life, but that will be elucidated upon later. Martial artists tend to make use of their inner ki, as it is naturally easier to connect to. Sometimes this inner ki can be forced out for practical purposes such as battle auras or ki blasts, though these can be impeded and or altered by certain factors. Like the effect Ki has on our world, this will be discussed more in depth later. _

Upon reading this, I was instantly relieved. The scroll did contain something regarding the condition of my ki. Eager to find out more, I skipped a fair amount of the text until I found the desired passage.

_As discussed before, an individual's inner ki flow can be stopped, slowed, or even altered by certain circumstances. The first is a certain shiatsu point that slows the ki flow to one's muscles, rendering them weaker than an infant. The second is to force one's own ki into the enemy, effectively disrupting their flow. This method, as opposed to the last, weakens the opponent only temporarily, though if uncontrolled it can cut a person off from their ki at a cellular level, which will lead to their death within minutes as their heart will stop._

_The third circumstance, which is the only one that will alter a person's inner ki as opposed to stopping or slowing it, is exposure to massive amounts of magic. There is only one recorded instance of this happening. A man was exposed to many weaker magics for a prolonged period of time and then once more to a massive amount of magic at one time. Due to this being the only recorded instance it is unknown whether it was the prolonged exposure or the massive burst of magic that caused this disruption of ki, though it is entirely possible that the weaker magics accumulated in his body and were jumpstarted by the massive burst the man underwent._

I consider this for a moment. Seeing as I've dealt with the same circumstances it is likely that the latter possibility, but I quickly decide that it doesn't matter and that I can theorize about it later. I continue scanning until I find how the man's ki was altered.

_From what I can gather, the man's ki began to take properties similar to the large burst of magic that affected him. The details that he gave me, few as they were, led me to he understanding that he was exposed to a large amount of magic connected to the element of air. His ki seemed to take up many of the qualities that air did henceforth. When using a ki attack, he could rely less on emotion, and the result wasn't the solid impact that contact with a ki attack normally produced, but instead, the feeling of being blasted by highly pressurized air. This eventually spread into many of the other elements, though it happened over the course of the several years I studied the man's symptoms until his death at the age of 231._

My heart drops at this. The man was studied for several years and a cure was never found. I continue reading cautiously, hoping that there was at least a way to control this "elemental ki".

_Fire would burn its target, ice would leave it chilled, water would make the target wet and it would lose friction, and electricity would create shockwaves through his ki. I presume more would have arisen as he acquired another element shortly before his death. These would appear under conditions of duress, and often he would gain control of them under similarly stressful situations to when he acquired them. _

My hopes raise somewhat at this. At the very least I can learn to control it, maybe even make it work in my favor, even if it will take a long time, and I rather like the idea of not being on the receiving end of magic for a change. I still hope though that I can find some way to use unaltered ki, if only because the elemental variants seem considerably more deadly to my opponents.

My thoughts are interrupted by a thump next to me.

"Watcha' readin' m'boy?" Happosai asks, impatiently looking over my shoulder at the scroll.

Sometimes he acts so childish for his age, or for being the grandmaster of Anything Goes for that matter.

"A scroll on ki, huh?" he questions, not giving me a chance to respond. "And here I thought that you had already become skilled in ki usage, what with creating your own ki attacks and all, then again, your ki has felt more than a little strange since your battle with Saffron."

My eyes widen immediately as I turn around to face him.

"You can feel it?" I ask, incredulous. "And you haven't said anything about it?"

"Ranma, every ki adept within a mile should be able to feel it if they've got a clear head!"

I regain my composure somewhat before asking, "What do want from me?"

"Why Ranma, I only want to talk, and to help you with your ki problem. I am your master after all, and you are my student," he downright purrs.

"You haven't taught me anything before." I say, leveling a glare at him, but not wanting to tell him to buzz off for fear that he might get mad and spill whatever he knows to the Tendos and my father.

"I know that I may have…slacked off in my duties as a teacher," he states, almost regretfully, though his face changes to one of complete conviction, "but you've piqued my interest repeatedly, and I'm ready to help you, so long as you show me what you've been hiding."

I stop momentarily as I try to discern whether or not he is telling the truth. He has been untrustworthy before, but this is the most serious I've ever seen him and there is a solemnity in his eyes that tell me how serious he is.

I hand my head for a moment, mulling over my decision.

"Alright, where do I begin?"

**That's a wrap everybody! As usual, I am going to have to request reviews from you, as they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Seriously though, I only got two reviews last chapter, and considering how much of a pain that chapter was, it made me feel a little empty inside. Anyways, I would really like to hear what you guys have to say regarding my expansion on the concept of ki, and what you think of Ranma learning to control elemental ki. **

**Once again, review please!**

**P.S. I plan on making chapters longer from here on out. I'll probably try to make each chapter 500 words longer each time. This chapter has 2,500 words not counting the author's notes. Hopefully this won't make the waits too much longer.**

**Updated May 3, 2015**

**-Fixed some grammar mistakes and an incorrect word. (Thank you Moose Breath for catching those, and if you would consider becoming a beta reader for my chapters, that would be awesome!)**


	9. Chapter 9

**New chapter guys! Finished this up during a vacation to Florida. And I'm starting the next one immediately as I now have a five-hour flight home. I hope you enjoy the chapter and tell me what you think. **

**I own nothing and if I say otherwise I'll probably get my kneecaps busted.**

Ranma

"Alright, where do I begin?"

For a moment I'm genuinely not sure what to say, as I haven't had to tell anybody but Nabiki, who had to be dealt with very differently than Happosai.

"Your intelligence boy! Since when have you been so smart? How many people know?" Happosai says, having become impatient with my hesitance.

I sigh and decide to start with what's imperative before going into he details.

"So far, only Nabiki and Kasumi know. And I've always been smart," I answer simply. "I've just been hiding it for a long time."

The old man looks at me for a few seconds before shaking his head.

"So it isn't some sort of magic spell. I suppose that explains a few things," He comments as he nods his head, though it seems like he's saying that mostly to himself. Suddenly he looks up and stares me in the eyes.

"But why? Why would you hide how smart you are?"

"Because of my father," I say shortly. Happosai's impatience is really getting to me, even though I can certainly understand why he is interrogating me. All the same I hesitate momentarily before continuing.

"I found out that my father intended to use me when I was really young. As you are well aware, the Saotome School of Anything Goes specializes in aerial combat. Two years after my father and I set off on our training trip I successfully managed to learn how to land without injuring myself. My father used this as an excuse to celebrate and proceeded to get a drink at a local bar. I wasn't allowed in of course, but I went inside to look for him anyway. When I found him he was completely drunk and was bragging to the bartender that so long as his son's success in martial arts continued, that he would be set for life after his son married one of his friends daughters. He didn't know that I overheard him say that, and I've managed to keep it that way. I tried disobeying him on a few occasions to show some independent thought, but he would quickly become wary and do whatever it took to get me back under control. At first he would just try to bribe me with new techniques, but once he found that I was still disobeying him, his training methods would become more brutal. I continued ignoring him and trying to get more freedom and eventually he became complacent with my disagreement and resistance so long as I didn't come up with any alternate solutions or ideas to what he wanted me to do. To a point that earned me some freedom but I've still had to play the fool. If he knew how smart I really was he'd understand that I'm always thinking independently, and I'm not sure how he would react. For all I know he would take me on another training trip so that he could reassert control, which means I would have to leave the first place I've been able to call a home in ten years, which isn't something I want to do," I say, as impassively as I can manage. Reflecting on this particular memory of my father is making my blood boil, but the last thing I want to do is show Happosai any weakness. Whether he is truly offering his help or not I would be an idiot to trust him so readily. As I reign in my anger I look at the old troll; I expect him to say something but he doesn't.

Instead he just lowers his head and takes a drag from his pipe in what appears to be deep thought.

After what feels like forever he looks up at me and asks another question.

"Why didn't you drop the act once you arrived in Nerima?"

There it is, a question that has burned in my own mind time and time again. I know the answer as to why I couldn't of course, but I keep on thinking about how things might've turned out had I done something differently.

"I had every intention of doing so with Akane when she had offered her friendship, but I changed my mind immediately when I saw how unstable she could be. After that, I decided that I should be more cautious and further evaluate the people around me only to realize that there was nobody I could trust. I had considered Kasumi briefly but her loyalty to her family made me wary of giving away my secret. Then my fiancées started appearing left and right and my father panicked. He probably didn't like the fact that I was suddenly offered multiple options instead of the one that he had laid out so that I could keep him comfortable. Not just that but everyone I knew seemed to want something from me all of a sudden. Things just became chaotic, so I kept hiding until a time when things had settled down. They never did and the stress just grew until I couldn't take it any more and was forced to turn to Nabiki once I was reasonably sure she was safe, but there's no way I could show my intelligence to everyone. If the fiancées thought that my unwillingness to choose one of them was anything but ineptitude with women they would confront me and force me to choose on the spot," I say, exasperated.

"And why don't you choose?" Happosai asks cautiously, though he seems to be expecting a specific answer.

Noticing this, I hesitate to answer before choosing my next words carefully.

"I don't want to be with any of them, but more importantly it's a martial artist's duty to defend the weak and, while I acknowledge that none of the girls are actually weak, they are helpless to their circumstances in our engagements. Soun, with the help of my father, has put both Akane and his family's honor on the line with this engagement, Ukyo won't be able to return to her family unless she marries or kills me, and while Shampoo gave me the kiss of marriage by choice I don't even want to think of what her punishment is if she loses me to another woman. There's no option that doesn't get people hurt."

"So, m'boy, what will you do?" Happosai asks, the look on his face the same one of admiration he gave me when I approached him tactfully at the train station.

"I'm going to find another solution," I say, giving a wry smile as I prepare to recite the core principle of my art and my life "That's what we do as Anything Goes practitioners isn't it? When nothing works we find another way."

Happosai just beams at me before responding.

"Very well Ranma, I've decided," He says with an air of finality to his statement.

"Decided what?" I press, curious about the decision he's made

"That you're ready to start training under me!"

"Why didn't you want to train me before now?" I ask, warily. I still don't trust the old gnome.

"Well there are two reasons m'boy," Happosai says, a grin still splitting his face.

"The first is that you didn't seem to embody the spirit of our school when it came to anything but fighting. I see now that I was mistaken, not that I feel bad; your act is pretty damn convincing if I say so myself," He remarks before cackling.

"And the second reason?" I inquire.

"I've finally found it!" He exclaims.

"Found what?" I ask again, getting impatient with his beating around the bush.

Slowly the old man's laughter settles down and he manages to look me in the eye before giving me a straight answer.

"Your weakness as a student," He says still grinning, though this grin seems to be almost malicious, "I've been trying to figure it out for ages now!"

"What are you talking about old man?" I ask.

"You didn't think I caused you so much trouble for no reason did you?" Happosai asks, still grinning madly.

I hesitate as I try to think of what to say to him ass he smiles and patiently awaits my response.

"After everything that my father and Soun said about you that's exactly what I thought!"

"You listened to the two men who sealed me in a cave? Talk about a biased opinion!" He huffs in annoyance.

"Well you certainly didn't give me any reason to doubt them! Honestly, I can't think of any good reason for you to put me through the ultimate weakness moxibustion!" I shoot back, glaring at the diminutive troll. I can tell I've hit a nerve, as he sags somewhat and looks at the ground.

"Ranma, none of that was out of cruelty," He says, his voice now hushed and his eyes solemn.

"Then what was the point of it?" I ask. I'm yelling now, and I'm sure that anyone on the second floor of the house can hear me.

Happosai pauses and takes in my glare, not shrinking in the slightest. After what feels like a damn eternity he responds.

"Ranma, have you ever heard of a teacher telling their student that they will break them down and build them up from nothing?" He asks.

The question takes me by surprise. I blink a few times as I try processing what he has just asked me.

I nod silently, my anger having all but dissipated to make room for my surprise.

"Boy, I can tell you here and now that the goal is rarely to actually break a student down. No, the reason teachers will offer seemingly insurmountable challenges is to find a student's weakness."

He pauses to take another drag from his pipe before continuing.

"Your father's weakness is his willingness to cut corners. Soun's is his lack of backbone in most matters, which is why I paired him up with your father. Yours… is that you have too much trouble asking for help."

Thinking it over, I realize how true this is. It has taken me two years to ask Nabiki to be my friend, and while it took me some time to figure out that she was wearing a mask it still took me a long time to ask her.

"When I was trying to find your weakness I speculated that you were having trouble accepting the core tenet of anything goes in your daily life. The thought occurred to me after watching you repeatedly insult Akane, but your explanation of your act makes sense as to why that conflicted with your combat skills," He continues, "And the fact that you never gave up on anything I set before you almost led me to believe at one point that perhaps your weakness was that you simply didn't know when to give up. However, you persevered and bested me every time, and I simply can't argue with success."

He seems ready to continue but I cut him off suddenly.

"Do you regret it? Weakness moxibustion?" I blurt out.

This is it. His answer here will determine whether or not I will even begin trusting him.

"With all my being. I'm so sorry I put you through that," He says, not a trace of dishonesty on his face.

Smiling a little I lower my head so that I can bow to him.

"Thank you," I say, finally letting my emotions get the better of me.

"For what m'boy?" He asks.

I can't see him with my head bowed, but I can hear from the tone of his voice that he is confused.

Lifting up my head I respond to him.

"It's…rare for me to get a sincere apology from anybody who's wronged me," I say.

Happosai just nods sympathetically as he puts his pipe back into his mouth.

"So what does this mean for our interactions?" I ask cautiously, "Are you still going to bother me?"

Happosai smiles at me before responding.

"No, m'boy, I will stop antagonizing you specifically. Our relationship should shift far more into teacher and student from here on out. The first thing we will work on is your ki of course. I've an idea of how you might be able to use normal ki again and I've lived long enough and witnessed enough magic that I should be able to help you gain better control of your elemental ki; aside from that you can expect more sparring with me. We start tomorrow," He says his genuine smile still plastered onto his face.

"And the panty raids?" I ask, my tone challenging.

At this his smile shifts into a grin of mischief.

"Those go on, Ranma. It keeps me young, besides, an old man has to have his fun," He says before hopping away, his distinct laugh bellowing in his wake.

For a moment I stare at him as he hops away, briefly wondering if I should follow him before deciding that I should probably talk to Nabiki about what was discussed.

It'll help me come to terms with it as well. Happosai was one of the last people I would have expected to become my ally after all. And hell, if he's honest, I might even consider him a friend.

Nabiki

I can't help but pace nervously in my room as I wait for Ranma to finish talking to Happosai.

Normally I would be listening to the entire conversation via cameras, but Happosai has disabled the ones I had placed on the roof as he often does whenever I try to monitor him.

I've been left blind and its something I'm not used to, especially when I've become accustomed to monitoring everything around me as the Ice Queen. So instead of knowing what is happening up there I have been flying blind so to speak with only a short outburst from Ranma to work with.

Any yelling could spell disaster if Ranma angered Happosai too much, but the lack of noise or explosions keep me calm enough not to climb onto the roof myself in an attempt to conduct damage control.

For now all I can do is hope that Ranma has enough tact to keep Happosai appeased.

After what seems like an eternity, I hear Happosai's cackling and look out the widow to see him jumping away from roof to roof.

I'm about to run out of my room and call for Ranma to calm down when I hear a knock at my window.

Predictably, it's Ranma, who is sporting a small grin that calms me down almost immediately.

I open the window and he swings himself from the roof into my room.

"I take it from your grin that we're safe for now," I say.

"We're better than safe," He says, his small grin growing into a beaming smile.

I let go a sigh of relief as I sit down on my bed.

"I actually think Happosai and I are on good terms at the moment," He says.

"Uh, Ranma, are you sure he didn't do anything to you?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at the pigtailed martial artist who may as well have grown a second head.

"Trust me," he says, "He seemed completely honest with me and gave explanations for his previous actions, and even if they remain unjustified, they make them understandable. Besides, he offered to help me with my ki problem."

I can't help but smile a little as I see how good a mood he's in. I know that his ki problem has been worrying him since his fight with Saffron; he's mentioned it a bunch of times and we did pay a visit to Nakano in the hopes of finding some information, if not an actual solution to the problem. The fact that he's getting even more help on this is reassuring, even if I don't quite trust Happosai not to have ulterior motives. If his past actions have said anything, it's that we must be careful with him. He is volatile, maybe more so than we can handle, and is penchant for mischief rivals Akane's tendency to get angry. When trying to defend our secrets I'll have to side with my Ice Queen instincts in this matter, and she doesn't gamble with maybes, not with something like this.

Cologne always has some ulterior motive, and I wouldn't put it past Happosai to be just as crafty as her. All the same I figure I'd best make my concerns clear with Ranma. If there's anything I've learned it is that Ranma likes to be told everything, to be shown the trust that nobody else ever seems to, so I always try to share my concerns with him.

"I'll trust you, but considering what Happosai has done in the past I'm not ready to trust him just yet," I say, "I'll be keeping an eye on him just in case he tries anything."

Ranma seems pensive for a moment before speaking.

"I think we can trust him, but you might be right. I appreciate that you're watching out for me," He says, his smile returning to his face.

"That's what friends are for," I say, returning his smile.

We both break out laughing at this. It's become something of an inside joke between the two of us since both of us admitted that, since neither of us had friends, we didn't quite know how they were supposed to support one another. We just knew that it was something that friends just did.

That changed though, as we learned more and more as we found ourselves relying on each other more and more so that we didn't have to bear the weight of our problems alone.

My thoughts are interrupted as I hear the front door slam and a voice call out.

"I'm back. Is anybody home?" Akane's voice echoes through the house.

Quickly I turn to Ranma.

"You should probably get out of my room. There's no need to have her find us together and jump to conclusions.

He nods to me and flashes me a grin.

"Goodnight Nabs." He says, his voice hushed as he hops out the window.

Once again, like so many times since Ranma and I became friends, I am happy.

**There you go! I hope you guys are enjoying this and looking forward to what comes next.**

**In other news this chapter (not counting author's notes) is over 3000 words! So far so good with adding 500 words each time! Next one should be 3500. Make sure to tell me how long you think my chapters should be on average so that I know what I'm working towards.**

**Review! It feeds my motivation.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright guys! New chapter. This should have been uploaded about a week after the last chapter was, but I just couldn't decide on a few things within the story. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**As usual I OWN NOTHING!**

Ranma

I can't help but wince a little as the sunlight filters through the window waking me up. It's a rarity that Pop doesn't wake me up with a surprise attack yelling, "You're going soft boy!" or some other nonsense, so he must have gotten really plastered with Soun last night, considering that he isn't here. I take the opportunity to shield my eyes with my arm and roll over on my futon, hoping to catch just a little more sleep before my father inevitably saunters back home and fights me. Unfortunately for me I don't even get the chance to fall asleep again before I feel a hand grab my shoulder. My eyes shoot open immediately and I react on instinct, jerking myself out of the grasp before launching a kick towards the perpetrator, only for it to be blocked by a thin pipe.

"Huh?" I ask, intelligently.

"Good morning to you too Ranma. I commend you for your reflexes, but I have to say that your reaction strikes me as more than a little paranoid." Happosai says cordially, shrugging off my attempt to send him flying out the window.

"Blame my father," I say, a little ticked that I couldn't get anymore sleep.

"I figured as much," Happosai mutters, though it sounds like he's saying it mostly to himself.

"So why are we up so early, old letch?" I ask as I stretch and look through my pack for some clean clothes.

"For training, boy." He says, harshly, "Now get dressed so we can head outside and begin."

With that he leaps through the window and straight into the yard.

I finish changing clothes and follow suit, finding him sitting text to the koi pond with his legs crossed and his pipe in his mouth.

"So what kind of training are we doing old man? And why are we doing it so early?" I ask, curious about Happosai's teaching methods.

"We're going to test a theory of mine regarding ki. Hopefully it'll allow you to use normal ki techniques again," He explains patiently, "You need to have a level head. Considering how much chaos is in your life you're likely to get frustrated by something or someone so we'd best get it over with early and while you're alert," He says, motioning for me to take a seat next to him.

"Okay, so explain to me exactly what we're doing," I say, as I take a seat beside him.

This isn't how I expected Happosai to act while teaching. All of my father's stories make him sound evil when teaching but he seems to be calm and patient with me.

"With some luck you should be able to tap into the ki of the world around you to power your techniques, so we're starting with a simple meditation so that you can begin sensing ambient ki," Happosai says, "This is difficult to do. An old friend of mine once described it as the background radiation of everyone's lives. It has always been present, so people don't seem to notice it since they've lived their whole lives surrounded by it. We are all connected to it, as all life naturally bleeds ki into the world, but theoretically, you should be able to expand how much ki you allow to flow out, and be able to sense ambient ki once your connection to it has expanded."

"Theoretically? So you've never done this before?" I ask, a little worried about my chances of success.

"I've never had to try," He replies, "Now, begin with your meditation and focus on the ebb and flow of your ki."

As I do so I can sense just a small portion of ki being released from my body with every breath. The sensation is faint, but it feels familiar; I've been doing it since the day I was born, but I've never focused on it before. It's peaceful, like watching the tide flow in and out at a beach, but its different, as if I'm floating in and out with it. It makes sense I suppose; it's my own life energy after all.

Then I hear a voice. I recognize it as Happosai's, but I'm only barely conscious enough to focus on it.

"Very good, Ranma. Now I want you to allow more ki to flow into the outside world in order to give you a stronger connection to focus on," He says. I can't tell from the tone of his voice, but his ki exudes a feeling of pride.

I begin pushing ki out of my body. It's gathering in my hand, like when I fire a ki blast. I can feel warmth appear in my hand. A fire is burning.

Happosai speaks again, this time his ki gives off a sense of alarm and worry.

"No Ranma! You can't force this. Don't push your ki out, just open the floodgates and let it pour out naturally," Happosai commands.

I follow his order immediately, easing the force I have put on my ki until it is nonexistent. I then try simply allowing more to leave with every breath. The sensation of flowing in and out with the ocean increases, and after what feels like several minutes I notice something. 'My body doesn't have enough ki to keep functioning!'

I panic, trying to slow the ki flow so that I could build up my inner reserves. I'm too late though; my body doesn't have enough ki to function. I can feel my heart slowing down, all of the nerves and muscles in my body are screaming, they feel like they're on fire. They aren't getting the oxygen they need. If Happosai is saying anything I can't hear it. The sensation of my ki flow is fading, not because it has stopped, but because my brain is shutting down. Terror clouds my mind.

'Is this it? Is this how I die? I can't leave Nabiki like this! She needs me as much as I need her! She already lost her mother and I cant put her through something like that again!'

With my remaining energy I scream within my mind. Raging, lashing out with what ki I have left. It's desperate and pointless. It's probably wasting the few seconds I have left, but I don't care. 'I can't just sit here!'

I can feel now. I'm exhausted and I'm dying. My consciousness has all but faded. Even that has begun slipping, my heart has stopped completely and I'm…fine!

My eyes shoot open for the second time today, my heart thundering as I grasp my chest. I look to see Happosai, looking completely bewildered. Nabiki and Kasumi are next to me. Both of them have tears in their eyes.

"What just happened?" I ask, groggy, everything part of me aches.

"You released too much ki, Ranma. Once I noticed what was happening I ran inside and woke up Nabiki and Kasumi. When we came back you didn't have a pulse." Happosai says, still obviously shocked.

"Then…how am I alive?"

Happosai just stares at me, his look of shock now replaced with a smile.

"Once you're body only had half of the ki it needed to survive the ambient ki flowed into you. It's still doing so and you're still giving off half of the ki you need to survive. Ambient ki flows into you to fill the void your ki has left, thereby keeping you alive, which then allows you to keep producing ki to release into the world. You, my pupil, have become the world's first positive ki feedback loop!"

"How can you tell? You said that you couldn't sense ambient ki!" I say, still a little panicked by my near death experience.

"You're right, m'boy, but I can sense your ki and half of what's in your body clearly isn't yours. What's more, the magic from your ki doesn't seem to bleeding into the ki that the world is providing you either, so you should be able to use it to fuel normal ki techniques!"

"Great!" I breathe as I collapse onto my back.

Just then Nabiki grabs Happosai by the collar and slams him on the ground.

'Uh oh.'

Nabiki

"You little troll!" I shriek, my Ice Queen persona nonexistent, "You knew this would happen! You used him like a guinea pig!"

"No!" Happosai yells, clearly surprised by my sudden aggression, "I swear this wasn't my intention!"

"Liar! I knew you couldn't be trusted!" I yell, raising my hand to pound the damned gnome into the dirt.

Just then I feel two strong arms snake around me. I turn my smoldering gaze to see that Ranma has gotten up and is giving me a hug.

"It's alright. I'm fine," He says, his voice as reassuring as the hug he's giving me, "I'm sure Happosai can explain himself, so just take a deep breath and relax."

I want to scream, to yell that it isn't all right, and that I can't relax but I can only give small whisper.

"I almost lost you." I say, turning so that I can return his hug.

"I know, but you didn't and I promise that I'm not going anywhere." He says as I bury my face in the crook of his neck.

After a minute or two I finally stop crying and I remove myself from him. Kasumi is staring at me, clearly worried, and even Happosai has an expression of concern despite the fact that I just tackled him.

"Thank kami you stopped with the tears." Ranma says, smiling as he looks over his soaked shirt, "I thought you were gonna activate my curse."

It's not funny, but I appreciate that he's trying to make some light of the situation to cheer me up. I give him a mock glare for a second before playfully shoving him into the koi pond.

As soon as he surfaces he gives out a huff and the both of us have a laugh at his expense.

Happosai seems to be looking at us now a contented look on his face, and Kasumi just shoots me a knowing smile.

"What?" I ask, wondering what she knows that I don't.

"Nothing, little sister, nothing at all," She says in a voice that is far too sweet to be honest.

I let out a huff but deem it as unimportant at the moment as I turn to Happosai.

"You, explain what happened. Now," I say, going full Ice Queen on him.

He doesn't seem fazed by my hostility this time around and instead turns to Ranma, who has just climbed out of the koi pond, before explaining.

"Well, m'boy, you've managed to do the impossible yet again," He says, his voice glowing with pride. "My original intention with today's training session was simply to help you identify ambient ki, so that when you needed to, you could make use of the ambient ki around you in order to utilize a technique, that you managed to create a feedback loop is frankly unbelievable, and probably required a combination of luck and fate to pull you through, so congratulations, you've achieved something that is beyond even me, and I couldn't be more proud of you. I'm afraid that after this though, I'm wary of working with your ki anymore, especially since I've no experience with a feedback loop, so perhaps it would be best to see what you can come up with on your own. Besides, I have much else to teach you. He says, grinning from ear to ear.

Then, he turns to me before pausing to take a drag from his pipe.

His explanation shocks me. The little gnome was in the right, and I was the one who was wrong to distrust him. Not only had he presented a good reason that it wasn't his intention to endanger Ranma, but he showed genuine concern and even congratulated Ranma on his accomplishment.

"I-I should apologize. I was wrong to accuse you of having an ulterior motive." I stammer, bowing to him.

"Ulterior motive? Of course I have an ulterior motive to helping Ranma!" He cackles, "I want a worthy heir who can spread my teachings!"

I stare at him and blink a few times, dumbfounded before smacking my forehead.

'I'm the smart one how on earth did I overlook that?' I wonder momentarily

"And as for that apology, don't bother," Happosai continues, a mischevious glint forming in his eyes "You were just defending someone important to you, and there's no reason to apologize for that! Besides, you've shown me that you have spirit. Maybe you should be a student of Anything Goes."

With that he hops away, leaving me to dwell on that thought.

Ranma

Slowly I walk over to Nabiki, who just seems to be staring off in the direction Happosai went.

"Hey, are you alright?" I ask, shaking her from her thoughts.

"Y-yeah, I'm just thinking" she responds.

"About?" I inquire, cautiously, though I think I know what she's thinking of.

"What Happosai said, about learning the Anything Goes style," She says, "I think it would be best for me to learn."

"Are you sure?" I press, wanting her to think this through completely before making a decision.

"Ranma, we need a contingency plan. If we're seen together your fiancées are going to assume the worst like they always do, and I need to be able to defend myself if that happens." She says, "You won't always be around to defend me, and at the very least I need to be able to hold them off until you can get to me."

"I know that, and I have no issue with teaching you," I say, making my best effort to be supportive. She is, after all, trying to be careful, "but I want to make sure that you're committed. This is going to take a lot of time and effort on your part, and it could raise unnecessary suspicion if we aren't careful."

She clenches her fists and looks me dead in the eye.

"I'll do it," She says, an air of finality in her statement.

"Alright, but how are we gonna keep it secret that you're learning the art?" I ask, hoping that she has an idea already.

Fortunately, I am talking to Nabiki, the queen of deception and carefully laid plans.

"We don't have to. I could tell everyone that I'm learning and spend time with Akane in the dojo." She says, "and you could be training me in secret."

I think it over momentarily. I have to admit it's a pretty good idea. It would save us the trouble of martial artists questioning her strength until she surpasses Akane, and maybe in that time we could convince Soun to help as well, which would extend the amount of time without suspicion.

"That's a good idea, so long as you don't pick up too many bad habits from Akane." I say half seriously.

It would be a real pain for her to have to unlearn a whole bunch of things.

Suddenly a thought occurs to me.

"You'll have to act like your defense is paper-thin if you're learning from your sister, at least until we can get your father to teach you some things," I warn, "Unless there's a life or death situation you cannot reveal anything I teach you.

"What's another mask?" She asks, "This one won't be destroying my relationship with those around me, after all. Hell, it might even bring me a little closer to Akane by giving me time to spend with her."

I give her a nod of affirmation.

"You have to promise me one thing though," I say, "You have to promise that you won't fight anyone unless you absolutely have to. I'm the only person who gets to see your true skills unless you are in danger. You said we needed a contingency plan and this is it, but it comes with its own risks and we might want to find another plan to back this up in the case it goes south."

"I promise that I won't fight unless I have to, but I don't think there will be much of our lives to salvage if people find out, which means that having another back up plan can only do so much," She says, a little cynically but speaking truthfully nonetheless.

"You're right, but I have an idea that might work. I'll fill you in on it once I get a better grasp of what I'm doing or whether or not I can even figure it out," I say cautiously, I don't want to give her a false sense of security considering what's at risk if we're found out.

She raises an eyebrow at me, but I can tell that she isn't worried that I'm hiding anything from her. She trusts me; I can read it in her expression, and it's something that I appreciate more than can be said.

"Thanks Nabiki," I say.

"For?" She asks, her eyebrow still raised questioningly.

"Nothing," I say, though in my mind another answer rings clear. 'Everything.'

She seems to understand though, given the nature of our friendship, as she just smirks at me before walking back inside, leaving me alone.

**There's the chapter guys! I hope that you enjoyed it. I'm still growing into writing for Happosai and I have every intention of making more mischievous in future chapters. I'm sorry for the wait once again and for the fact that this chapter didn't meet the word count that I was hoping for (it's actually slightly shorter than the last chapter), but this just felt like a good place to end it.**

**Oh, and as usual, REVIEW!**

Update January 16, 2016

Minor updates


	11. Chapter 11

**Yeah, I know I'm late. You'll get your explanation at the end. All the same, I really do apologize. I hate the fact that this doesn't get updated on a regular basis, and the problem is just as much me as it is my schedule. I have little time to write lately and even when I do have time I've lacked inspiration due to exhaustion, so I really do ask for you patience. Still I hope you enjoy!**

**I OWN NOTHING, NADA, ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH!**

Nabiki

I can't help but smile as I walk inside and take a seat at the table. Admittedly, I'm happy that I will be learning martial arts again, not that I'm particularly interested in learning but rather because it will let me spend more time with Ranma as well as reconnect with my family a little more.

Just then I hear someone coming down the stairs. I turn my head to see Akane coming down the stairs.

Suddenly I find myself wishing that Akane were like me in the mornings, which is to say half asleep and merely and agreeing with things to dismiss them rather than actually listening. Unfortunately for me, Akane is not that person.

"Morning Nabiki. You seem more awake than usual," Akane comments, seemingly noticing that I'm awake without a cup of coffee in my hand.

"I've been up for a while just thinking about something," I say, fully expecting that she take the bait.

"What were you thinking about?" She asks.

'Bingo'

"I think I want to start learning martial arts again," I say, looking her dead in the eyes, "and I would like you to help teach me, at least until we can convince daddy to start teaching the both of us again."

For a few moments she just stares at me, dumbfounded.

"Why? Why now?" Akane asks, "You stopped practicing years ago. Why would you want to start again?"

"Well I have a few reasons. First, I could use the exercise. Second, with my business, I've made some enemies and I want to be able to handle myself myself just in case. Third, with all the crazy stuff that happens in Nerima I want to be able to defend myself at least a little," I say, donning my Ice Queen persona and all the nonchalance that it entails.

"Alright," She says before smiling, "Who knows maybe it'll be fun having someone to teach."

"Good," I say, allowing a small but genuine smile to slip through my Ice Queen persona, "when do we start?"

"We could start now," Akane says, "Mornings are generally a good time to practice since you're well-rested and more alert, though that last one usually doesn't apply to you"

"Ha ha," I say, sarcastically "I'll deal. I don't have a gi that will fit me anymore though."

"You can borrow one of mine for now," Akane says, "We can look into getting you one later."

"Okay," I say, giving her a slight nod, 'I just hope it isn't too tight a fit.'

Smiling, she leads me up to her room to get a gi. I can see her light up a little as she pulls one out of the closet

I recognize the one she offers me as Kasumi's old gi from back before mom died. It's a plain white gi as opposed to Akane's yellow one and it shows signs of age, though it seems to be in good condition overall.

Akane notices me giving the gi a once-over and smiles.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" She asks, a nostalgic smile on her face.

I think back to a time when Mom was alive and Dad would teach Akane, Kasumi, and I in the dojo. If I had known what was coming I would've cherished those memories more at the time.

"Yeah. It does," I say, a little wistfully.

"You get changed and I'll head down to the dojo and start warming up," Akane says cheerily, before heading downstairs.

For a moment, I do nothing but stare at the gi in my hands. Finally I put it on and look over myself. It's a little tight, but it'll do for now. Having a gi on for the first time in so long elicits a wave of nostalgia.

I sigh as my mind runs through countless memories of better times before turning to Akane. I know what she wants from this; it's plain to see in her eyes. She's hoping to recapture a little bit of the past. I suppose I am too.

Ranma

As I sit at the table I wonder if it's a good idea to let Nabiki train with Akane. I know that she needs to be able to defend herself in the event that the fiancées find out about us, but I don't exactly trust Akane's patience or rather, her lack of it. She's been conditioned to strike whatever makes her angry, and I admit that that is, at least in part, my fault for allowing her to do so. The problem is that I've also taught her not to hold back since I'm resilient enough to survive anything she can throw at me.

'I think I'm going to watch over their first few sessions to make sure that Akane can be a competent teacher,' I think to myself as I nervously consider that Akane could unintentionally do to an untrained person.

Despite my fears I keep my outer expression relaxed and casual, as I've had to do for so long.

It's harder to do than usual, but then again I don't normally have to feign that I'm unaware of a person in potential danger. The closest situation I can think of having to act unaware that Ryoga is P-chan and that he's in Akane's room, but that's a moot point seeing as I know that Ryoga would never intentionally hurt Akane.

All the same, this time it takes extra effort to keep myself calm and to keep every step I take measured so that I don't break out into a sprint.

As I open the door to the dojo I realize that Akane is the only one there.

She's smiling as she runs through a kata that I've seen her practice now and again.

She knows it the movements but her execution has always been sloppy, though I have to admit that she seems to be running through it a bit more smoothly than usual.

"Maybe training with Nabiki will be good for her too,' I think.

As she finishes the kata she takes notice of me and turns to me.

"Hey Ranma, would you like to join us for training today?" She asks cordially.

My eyes widen involuntarily in surprise.

'Wow, Nabiki training with her has really put her in a good mood,' I think. For a moment I'm tempted to ask who she is and what she's done with the real Akane but I decide against it. No point in ruining her good mood with my usual remarks.

Instead I raise one of my eyebrows questioningly and ask, "Us?"

"Nabiki decided that she wants to start learning martial arts again!" She says, beaming.

"Huh, didn't see that coming," I say, effortlessly feigning ignorance.

"So do you want to practice with us?" Akane asks again.

It's rare for her to be so nice to me, but I have to decline her offer seeing as I haven't entirely recovered from this morning's near-death experience.

"Nah, I think I'll just watch," I say, donning my usual nonchalance.

I can tell that my response dampens Akane's good mood somewhat as she gives off a huff and begins warming up.

Just then Nabiki enters the dojo wearing a plain white gi that looks just a little too small for her.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, her voice brimming with the usual hostility that we've all come to expect of the Ice Queen's.

"Akane said that you wanted to learn the Art again and I figured I'd watch and see what you remember," I say, my condescending 'I'm better than you'll ever be' tone of voice playing up my arrogance even more than usual.

"Saotome, if you want to watch it's going to cost you," She says, he usual money loving grin now on her face.

I can't help but sigh.

"How much?" I ask as I begin digging through my pocket for money.

"1,500 yen," She says with about as much warmth as I'd expect from a glacier.

Quietly I mutter to myself about highway robbery. It is just to keep up appearances of course, as I actually know that my money is going towards the compound so that we can keep a roof over our heads.

Nabiki and I have already agreed on how much I'll pay per month, and she returns any excess money she charges me, though she still charges me in front of others at any opportunity.

"Nabiki, you're here to train, not make a quick buck," Akane cuts in with more authority than I expect.

Nabiki and I look at each other, blinking and then back to Akane.

Few people presume to boss the Ice Queen around, and those that do get put in…uncomfortable positions.

"Now," Akane says, harshly.

Surprisingly, Nabiki listens, nodding to Akane before asking what they would start with.

"Good, now we can start. I'm going to take you through a beginning kata to get you warmed up. It's one we learned when we were younger so it should feel familiar and help you get comfortable," Akane says supportively, before showing Nabiki the kata slowly.

I'm admittedly impressed with Akane. She seems that she's taking teaching seriously, and she has commanded Nabiki's attention.

'This has been her dojo since Mr. Tendo stopped teaching,' I think to myself, 'if anyone is in charge here it would be her.'

The fact that she seems to be starting Nabiki off with simple things is also pretty relieving. I half expected her to start overworking Nabiki off the bat.

After finishing the kata, Akane instructs Nabiki to do it as well.

Nabiki starts cautiously. Her first moves make it painfully clear how uncomfortable she is and despite the kata being rather short she pauses awkwardly a number of times, obviously trying to remember which move comes next. Sooner or later most of the moves come to her and Akane patiently reminds her of those that don't. Her motions are not what I would call graceful or smooth, but I can tell that they feel familiar to her.

Akane just watches, though her face has an obvious expression of approval plastered onto it.

"How did I do?" Nabiki asks as she finishes the kata.

"That was pretty good for someone who hasn't practiced in years," Akane says, "We'll just have to work on your balance some."

'A lot,' I think to myself, 'as well as your breathing, concentration, and timing; those will come with time though.'

Nabiki smiles. It isn't the Ice Queen's signature cold smile. It's obvious that this smile is genuine, and it's good to see that someone aside from Kasumi and I can elicit such a reaction from her.

I give her a nod before exiting the dojo.

I've seen enough to know that she's in good hands, or at least hands that won't hospitalize her.

Nabiki

I sigh as I look at Akane going through the kata. I do remember this one. It was one of the first things dad taught us and I remember struggling to perfect it as a kid.

Getting through the kata is a struggle but I finally finish, albeit with some reminders from Akane. It was familiar but at the same time it felt alien. The were parts that I could get through easily, that I felt like I knew by heart, but there were some parts that I just didn't have any recollection of. All the same it is really nice to get some praise from Akane for how I did. The look of pride she had was gratifying. As I look over to Ranma I see that he also has a reassuring smile on, though his seems more reserved.

'I have a lot to improve on," I think to myself.

Ranma then gives me a nod and leaves the dojo.

I turn back to Akane.

"So what's next?" I inquire, a little worried about what we'll be doing next.

"We're going to have you go through the kata some more. I'll be correcting you as you go along this time," Akane says cheerily.

I nod and comply. As I run through the kata again I find myself pausing less. The moves come to me more readily now. Akane stops me a few times to correct my stance by telling me to move my legs a little farther apart and to keep my elbows in more when delivering a punch or to block a little higher.

I find myself remembering how much fun it is to practice martial arts with someone.

I can't stop myself from wondering whether or not we might be able to convince Kasumi to join us in the future. After a few times running through the kata Akane stops me.

"That's enough kata practice. We're going to work on something else now," Akane says, seemingly having noticed that I've grown somewhat distracted from the kata.

"Okay. What do you have in mind?" I inquire, wondering what she wants me to do.

"Well you're going to need to be more in shape if you ever want to have a sparring match with me, or if you want to have longer training sessions, so we're going to go for a jog to start building up your stamina."

"Alright," I say, "Let me just change into something that'll be more comfortable for running."

Upon reaching my room I can't help but stop for a moment.

'I'm enjoying this more than I thought I would,' I think, 'Ranma loves martial arts because it offers him temporary freedom from his mask. I suppose they do the same for me by allowing me to reconnect with Akane. I just hope that I'll be able to do the same with dad and Kasumi at some point.'

Shaking myself from my thoughts I change out of my gi and into a sports bra and some running shorts before rushing downstairs to meet Akane.

Ranma

'It isn't even ten 'o'clock yet and today's been crazier than usual,' I think to myself as I lay on the roof, considering what I should do on a day as nice as this.

'Seeing as I'm still drained from this morning working on my ki control is out of the question,' I think, 'and I think I might actually collapse if I try to do a kata, so what else can I do?'

After a few minutes of trying and failing to think of something to do I flop onto my back.

"I have got to get myself a hobby," I say, thinking out loud.

'For now I guess I'll just read through that ki scroll that Doctor Tofu gave me. I do need to get a better idea of what kind of control I'm working towards and any effects these elemental ki abilities might bring.'

As I look through the scroll for one of the passages that I've yet to read I find one titled _Elemental Ki and Its Emotional Effects._

I already know that different ki attacks feed off of and fuel different emotions. Ryoga's Shi Shi Hokodan being a perfect example as it not only gains power from his depression, but also makes him more depressed.

Eagerly, I read on.

_Normal ki both feeds and feeds off of the user's emotions. Elemental ki however, is different from normal ki in that it doesn't feed off the user's emotions. Instead it only feeds emotions, albeit temporarily. While the ki is in use, it will build up a specific emotion immensely depending on which element is in use. Fire leaves the user angry, eventually escalating into a blind rage. Earth makes it's user stubborn, which might leave them unwilling to change tactics. Ice makes the user cold and unfeeling, which might lead them to act brutally and without sympathy towards their opponent. Water leaves the user cool and collected, but arrogant, and liable to underestimate their foe. Wind will leave the user more prone to just avoid attacks and be far less willing to confront his opponent. This can all be balanced out if the user switches between the different elements at their disposal, however if they don't their tactics can quickly become predictable if they fail to do so._

I pause in my reading.

This could be a serious problem considering that I only have fire ki at the moment. Granted I can now use ambient ki, but I was hoping that elemental ki could simply take its place now.

'Oh well, I guess it can still be my trump card,' I think, still a little dejected, 'I just have to be careful with it.'

I set down the scroll and start focusing on the fire ki in my body. I'm not really doing anything with it, just being aware of it and how it works. It burns fiercely, enough so that I wonder why it isn't burning me from within. Upon closer inspection I realize that it is tightly contained by another energy that doesn't feel like any ki I've ever sensed. Whereas ki feels connected to the life it came from I can't help but feel like this new energy comes from deep in the earth, removed from any life. It almost feels otherworldly.

For a moment I wonder if this strange new energy is magic, if it's the leftover energy from Saffron and his magical attacks that began affecting my ki in the first place.

It certainly seems possible.

For a moment I'm unsure of what to do. If it's inside me I can almost certainly interact with it, but I have no clue what might happen if I do—my track record with magic doesn't exactly inspire confidence after all.

'I think I'll ask Happosai about this. He'll probably have some knowledge on the subject,' I think to myself before rolling up the scroll and jumping off the roof.

Unfortunately, upon landing I am greeted by one of the few things that I fear. It's a terrible sight—one that chills me to my core.

One of the neighborhoods cats has wandered into the compound.

Time slows to a halt.

All of my instincts are screaming at me to run, but my legs remain frozen.

"C-c-c-cat!" I stutter, as the furry little hell beast sniffs at me with what can only be malice. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Kasumi rushing out of the house to get the cat away from me, but it's too late. My vision fades to black as the beast rubs against my leg.

**All right, so the reason this particular chapter took me so long was that I wasn't satisfied with it. The thing was very nearly done for ages but I just wasn't satisfied with it. So I spent a day or so over Christmas vacation editing the crap out of it. I didn't finish it then unfortunately and life has just kept me either busy or exhausted since. Seriously, though, things should get better from here on out. I promise. I have some more days off so as long as I manage my time well, (and resist my rekindled addiction to League of Legends) all should work out. Probably.**

**Oh, and give me some incentive by leaving review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I really have no excuse for how late this is. In fact, most of this chapter was written some time ago. I just wasn't satisfied with the ending and I kind of wanted to make it longer. Ah well. It's still something I suppose.**

Nabiki

The jog was nothing short of exhausting.

'I need to get back into shape,' I think to myself as I collapse in front of the compound.

Akane, on the other hand, isn't even out of breath. She looks down at me with mild amusement twinkling in her eyes.

"You might want to lay down for a little while, Nabiki. Take it easy for the rest of the day. The jog will be longer tomorrow," She says, smiling down at me with a grin that I swear is filled with malice.

"Sadist," I mutter under my breath.

As I start getting up I make a mental note never to give Akane any modicum of power ever again.

Just then Kasumi bolts into the entryway startling the both of us.

"What's wrong?" Akane asks, nervously. It's unsettling to see Kasumi panicking and I can tell that Akane isn't sure what to make of it.

"Ranma ran into a cat a little while ago!" She says.

"Did he go into the Neko-ken?" I ask, worried.

"Y-yes," Kasumi stammers. She isn't usually involved in the chaos of Nerima, so she's understandably at a loss for what to do.

"Did he hurt you?" Akane asks, now Kasumi over for any injuries.

"N-no," She says, "He was friendly enough, and I tried to get him to come inside, but he ran off."

"I'll go find him," Akane says "He's dangerous as he is now and I'm the only one who can calm him down."

"I'm going too," I say before immediately regretting my decision.

"Why do you care what happens to Ranma?" Akane asks, obviously suspicious of me.

For a second I'm at a loss for what to do. I need to be able to look for Ranma without letting Akane know that I'm his friend.

"I don't care about Ranma, " I comment coldly, having recovered from my slip-up and immersing myself in my Ice Queen persona, "I care about my most profitable cash-cow, so let's get to looking."

Akane seems to buy this and Kasumi shoots me a look that says 'nice save, but be careful ' and we both head out.

"Any ideas on how we can find him?" I ask Akane. I haven't had to deal with the neko-ken much and I know Akane has been able to bring Ranma out of that state in the past, so I have every intention of following her lead. I am, honestly, terrified of dealing with Ranma in this state. I've seen what he can do, and the fact that he could peel the bark from trees with his hands or ki claws or whatever is scary as hell.

'Ranma the person might like me, but that doesn't mean that he will in the neko-ken state, he gets along with Akane after all,' I think to myself.

"We're going to do what Mr. Saotome did the first time we saw Ranma went into the Neko-ken, and lure him out with catnip. There's a park nearby that we can use," Akane says confidently.

"Aren't there going to be people there?" I ask nervously as I imagine what neko-ken Ranma could do to people. He could tear through a tree with his bare hands after all.

"There's nobody there," Akane says, "Ranma and Ryoga had a fight about a week ago and the Bakusai Tenketsu did a number on the place. None of it has been fixed yet."

"Fine. Where are we getting the catnip?"

Akane just flashes me a smile.

"There's a pet shop nearby and the owner owes me a favor."

"For what?" I ask.

"There were some dumb boys hanging out in front of the shop and scaring customers away. I took care of them," She replies with a smirk.

I let of a mental sigh. That's my sister; always happy to show off her martial arts skills, especially when they're directed towards the opposite gender.

Shaking my head I push those thoughts aside and focus on keeping up with Akane.

I'm already winded from our jog earlier and she's getting further and further ahead of me. I briefly consider yelling for her to slow down before deciding that the sooner she gets the catnip the better.

Eventually I catch up to Akane at the pet store, where the owner has loaded her up with two large bags of catnip.

"You ready for this?" She asks, hefting both of the bags onto her shoulders.

"Ready to deal with a feral Ranma who could effortlessly tear us limb from limb if he wanted to? Of course I am," I deadpan as I follow Akane who has begun sprinting off in the direction of the park.

Akane of course, races ahead of me and gets out of my sight before the first mile as I curse myself, not for the first time, for not keeping in shape shape.

Upon reaching the park I find that Akane has already poured the catnip out of the bag and begun spreading it around on the ground in the center of the park.

"Are you sure this will work, Akane? I mean, how is Ranma supposed to know about this?"

"His sense of smell is really good when he's like this. The last time this happened we found him blocks away pawing at the window of a seafood store. I would've checked there first but the owner moved out of Nerima. Last time I saw him he said something about being too old to keep up with everything that happens around here," Akane explained as she finished spreading the rest of the catnip around.

I only nod. Can't exactly blame people for not wanting to stick a round when the locals have been referring to the local martial artists as the town's wrecking crew.

We wait for what must have been a few minutes, though it felt like much longer.

I'm not used to being in the thick of Nerima's chaos. Usually I'm off to the side trying to make a profit from whatever's happening, but now I'm waiting for it to come to me. It's unnerving.

Suddenly I hear a rustling from one of the nearby bushes.

"Is that him?" I ask, scared. The reality of the situation dawns on me. I could potentially die horribly, ripped apart by my secret best friend.

"It might be. Get behind me," Akane says grabbing my arm and pulling me behind her.

Just then Ranma comes out of the bushes. He's on all fours, in the same position that I see an agitated cat in. He moves forward cautiously, obviously surveying the situation as best he can. He is staring at his, his pupils narrowing into slits.

"A-Akane, he's not stopping for the catnip. What to we do?"

"It's fine, he likes me," She says, but her voice doesn't hold half as much confidence as I want it to.

She tightens her grip on my arm.

"Do something!" I whisper, my nerves getting the better of me.

"Hey, Ranma! It's me," she says, letting go of my arm and kneeling down before beckoning him over.

He pays her no mind though; his eyes are focused on me now.

Akane notices this and moves into his line of vision, getting him to look at her instead. For a moment Ranma stops and lets out a low, guttural yowl.

I start to back away, worried that me might be unhappy because I'm next to his favorite person.

Just as I begin to do this he lunges straight past Akane and towards me.

He's on me before either of us can blink, and I'm knocked to the ground. Akane immediately gets up, rushing towards Ranma before he can hurt me, but just as she reaches for him, three red lines appear on her arm. I don't realize that they're cuts until Akane yelps and pulls her arm back. She cradles her arm, which is fortunately still attached, as she lets off a string of curses at Ranma, who turns his attention towards back towards me. A shiver goes down my spine as he runs up to me. I close my eyes, expecting the sharp pain of claws or rake across me, but it doesn't come. Instead I feel hair rubbing across my arm. Cautiously I open my eyes to find him head-butting me affectionately.

I sit there, momentarily stunned, as Ranma continues to show me affection before seemingly realizing that he's surrounded by catnip and flopping down lazily on the ground.

It takes me a few moments to work up the courage to take my eyes off of him, I did think he was going to end my life mere moments ago, after all.

Finally I shoot Akane a questioning glance. She's still cradling her arm protectively, but the look on her face is telling me that her rage is about to boil over.

"Stop!" I command softly as she takes a step towards Ranma, clearly ready to attack him.

She looks at me like I'm insane before looking at her arm and then back to me again. I can tell what's going through her head.

'Look at what he did to me! Why are you defending him?'

"Akane," I speak, softly so as not to disturb the still potentially volatile Ranma lying beside me, "Neko-ken Ranma has gone toe-to-toe with Cologne. He might usually like you, but cats are mercurial and he was willing to attack you already. You can't fight him."

Akane grimaces. She doesn't like being told that she can't beat somebody. I know that it hurts her pride, but I have no choice but to be blunt here. If she attacks Ranma now, she'll end up with a lot worse than a few scratches.

"Just get to the clinic and get your arm bandaged. I'll take care of Ranma," I tell her. Carefully letting my hand down for Ranma to sniff at it.

He bats at my hand playfully, fortunately having put away his ki claws.

"Fine," She says, albeit a little begrudgingly, "I'll see back at home."

I nod and watch her as she runs out of sight.

Just then a though occurs to me.

"Wait, Akane! What do I do with him when he's like this?!" I yell, but it's too late. She's either too far away to hear me or too mad at Ranma to come back and tell me what to do.

"Looks like it's just me and you," I sigh, looking over at Neko-Ranma.

He lets off a purr before nudging me again, clearly seeking attention.

I relent and begin scratching him behind his ear.

"Just don't kiss me on the mouth like you did with Akane," I say jokingly as he melts bonelessly into my lap.

After a few minutes I turn to my thoughts.

'Man my life got weird. My best, and only, friend currently has the mind of a cat and is laying in my lap, not to mention that this friendship is secret because, if it weren't, his multiple fiancés would try to kill and or drug me.'

I am torn from my thoughts, though, as I feel something wet move across my hand. The feeling sends shivers down my spine.

I whip my head down only to find that Ranma has decided to lick me.

I immediately go full Ice Queen, shooting a downright chilling gaze at neko-Ranma, who looks at me uncaringly.

"Right, you're a cat," I mutter to myself as I realize that my perfectly terrifying glare has been wasted on him.

He licks me again.

This time a yank my hand away from him before trying to shake some of the slobber off.

"You might act cute but you can be pretty disgusting sometimes," I say, as I begin to wipe my hand off on his shirt.

He just looks at me blankly, as if he's trying to understand what I'm saying, before nudging me with his head.

"On the bright side, once you're back to normal I'll have something that I'll never let you live down," I say, smiling smugly.

'Oh, this will be fun,' I think to myself.

Ranma

As I open my eyes the first thing I realize is that I'm staring at the sky. The sun is bright, and I squint trying to remember why I'm outside.

'Did I fall asleep on the roof again?' I wonder, as I turn my head on my pillow.

As I'm about to close my eyes again, a thought crosses my mind.

'Wait. If I'm on the roof why would I have a pillow?'

Suddenly the memory of the cat in the backyard floods back to me. I bolt up, looking over myself. There's only a tiny bit of blood on my hand. I breathe a sigh of relief. It's such a small amount that I doubt I've killed anything. The only thing I remember from first time waking up after the neko-ken is an image of horror: I was drenched in blood with the bodies of several cats strewn about around me. It's an image I dread waking up to every time I realize that I've fallen into the neko ken.

"Have a good catnap?" A familiar voice says.

I turn my head fast enough to give any normal person whiplash only to find Nabiki behind me.

"That'll be 10,000 yen by the way," She says, her Ice Queen smirk plastered on her face as she holds out her hand.

I sigh and pull out my wallet to pay her.

Every time we wish she could do something to help me out as a friend in public she reminds me that she'd have to charge me. It's become something of a joke between us, albeit a pretty miserable one as it just serves to remind us of how powerless we are. Besides, I know I'm not getting anywhere until she gets her money. Even if it's an act between us it's one that has to carry through until the end.

After I hand her the money she begins counting it.

After a long and uncomfortable silence I finally ask, "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"That'll be another five-hundred."

"Nabiki," I grind out. I know she's joking, but waking up from the neko ken and being unable to remember what I've done always puts me on edge.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you! We're in a park and I 'm just trying to keep up the act," she says, muttering the last part so quietly that I can barely hear it.

"Just tell me," I sigh, my initial anger dissipating in an instant as I realize that we are in a public place, albeit a seemingly uninhabited one.

"Alright, let's head home though. I 'll fill you in on the way," She says, walking off in the direction of the compound.

I sigh and follow her, eager to know just what happened.

"So where shall I start?" She asks herself nonchalantly. If the Ice Queen is good at anything, it's making her prey squirm.

"What or whose blood is on me?" I ask, ignoring the fact that her question is rhetorical.

"Oh, that would be Akane's," She says, "She tried touching you and, well, cats like to be touched on their own terms. The cuts were pretty shallow so it shouldn't be a huge deal".

"Tell that to Akane and our dads when we get home," I scoff.

"That'd be another thousand yen," She says, a smirk on her face.

This time, I can't help but chuckle a bit.

**There you have it folks! Drop a review if you want, even if it's just chewing me out for getting this out so late. I'll try to get the next one out sooner, but I make no promises.**


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